In Between the Shadows
by MayFairy
Summary: Their friendship again intact, but still mourning River, the two Time Lords settle back into adventures and running for their lives. But both begin to realise that perhaps being friends is more difficult than they thought – in more ways than one. But with River Song dead, what is the Silence's plan? And who is the Astronaut? 11/OC, second in the Halfway Out of the Dark series. AU
1. Prologue

_Bang_.

The bullet hit the dummy at the other end of the room. It went through the centre of the forehead.

_Bang_. _Bang._

The second and third bullets entered at the chest. Both sides. Both hearts.

A slow, deliberate, singular set of applause began to echo through the dim, empty room. From the shadows appeared the light of one eye. When the rest of the figure was revealed, Madame Kovarian adjusted her eye patch before her free eye focused on the lone figure in the centre of the room.

The little girl let her gun arm drop to her side as she looked at her superior.

"Very good." Madame Kovarian came a few steps closer. "Who are you going to kill?"

"The Doctor," The little girl said, flatly, her eyes barely daring to even momentarily glance sideways at the woman.

"Why?"

"To end the war."

"Why else?"

"Silence will fall."

"Silence _must_ fall," Kovarian hissed, and her thin mouth twisted with obvious satisfaction. "What else must you do?" At that, the girl hesitated, and Kovarian's hand darted out to grab the girl's shoulder tightly, her nails digging in. "What else?"

"His – his friend," The child stammered, her voice desperate, "She must – she must - I can't remember. I'm sorry!"

"There is no sorry. There is only success and failure. She must be taken care of if she also knows his secret. Silence her, capture her, kill her, to be honest, we don't care." Madame Kovarian rolled her eyes. "It's the Doctor that's important. He's the one that's dangerous. But that woman is a risk. Neutralise her. And kill him. River Song failed us a long time ago, you are our last hope. To kill the Doctor, and neutralise his companion." As she spoke, one of the agents of the Silence emerged out of the shadows next to her. The little girl stared at it with wide, frightened eyes as Kovarian continued to speak. "Neutralise her. Kill him."

And when they both returned to the shadows, the girl remained in the small pool of light the room had, staring at the practice dummies all around the room as she raised the gun again.

"Neutralise her. Kill him," She whispered to herself.

_Bang. _

For half a second, she smiled.

* * *

**AN in next/first proper chapter.**


	2. Three Years Later

**Hi everyone! Welcome to In Between the Shadows! **

**For those who are new, I would probably recommend reading Deafening Silence first, though if you want to just skip to this one, that's cool too. To understand the canon-divergence/AUness of this series' universe, though, I would say that you might want to at least read the epilogue of DS, which explains it all quite well. _  
_**

******And to those who have been waiting for this sequel, here it is! Hope you all liked the prologue, and hopefully the rest of it doesn't disappoint.**

**This chapter mostly sets the scene for the rest of the story as to where the characters are at, and also answers several questions from the previous story. But after that, we're into our first original adventure arc of the story!**

**Also, from here on out I am only going to have ANs at the end of chapters for the sake of neatness. Enjoy the first proper chapter of IBTS! You'll get a few questions answered right off the bat, which will be nice for some. **

* * *

_It's been one week since you looked at me_  
_Cocked your head to the side and said "I'm angry"_  
_Five days since you laughed at me saying_  
_"Get that together come back and see me"_  
_Three days since the living room_  
_I realized it's all my fault, but couldn't tell you_  
_Yesterday you'd forgiven me_  
_but it'll still be two days till I say I'm sorry_

_It's been one week since you looked at me_  
_Threw your arms in the air_  
_and said "You're crazy"_  
_Five days since you tackled me_  
_I've still got the rug burns on both my knees_  
_It's been three days since the afternoon_  
_You realized it's not my fault_  
_not a moment too soon_  
_Yesterday you'd forgiven me_  
_And now I sit back and wait til you say you're sorry_

_How can I help it if I think you're funny when you're mad_  
_Tryin' hard not to smile though I feel bad_  
_I'm the kind of guy who laughs at a funeral_  
_Can't understand what I mean?_  
_Well, you soon will_  
_I have a tendency to wear my mind on my sleeve_  
_I have a history of losing my shirt_

_It's been one week since you looked at me_  
_Dropped your arms to your sides_  
_and said "I'm sorry"_  
_Five days since I laughed at you and said_  
_"You just did just what I thought you were gonna do"_  
_Three days since the living room_  
_We realized we're both to blame,_  
_but what could we do?_  
_Yesterday you just smiled at me_  
_Cause it'll still be two days till we say we're sorry_

**One Week – Bare Naked Ladies**

* * *

The café was more crowded this time. As they sat down at the same table, the Doctor and his companion shared grins. The latter picked up the menu and put it down ten seconds later with a satisfactory nod to herself.

"Pancakes still on the menu?" He asked, amused.

Aliya nodded, looking almost embarrassed. "That obvious?"

"Yes. When it comes to pancakes, you're quite transparent," The Doctor told her. There was a brief pause where he just regarded her, and she frowned and tilted her head to the side slightly.

"What?"

He shrugged, smiling. "Three years. Since we last sat here."

She laughed. "Lord, it has been, hasn't it? We were so jumpy then, worried about saying the wrong thing."

_Despite both of them being more at ease now that they had apologised, they were still a little wary of each other as they slid into opposite sides of the booth. It was small but comfortable, with squishy seats and satisfactory leg room underneath the table._

"Well, I didn't want you to change your mind and decide to go back to Torchwood," He admitted.

Aliya fiddled with the salt and pepper shakers. "And I kept thinking that maybe it was all just a cruel joke and you were going to buy me pancakes and then send me back."

_With the food ordered, they sat there in silence until the Doctor finally spoke up. _

"_So, how's Torchwood, then?"_

"_They're doing good," Aliya replied, finally looking back at him and smiling, "I like to think that I've helped out several times. But it's still more Jenny's element. Three years old and she's much more at home on Earth than I was."_

"_She's never known a home to compare it to."_

"_That's true, I suppose." _

"And no second thoughts?" The Doctor grinned at her cheekily, and she chuckled and shook her head.

"No. You?" He also shook his head, and she nodded. "Good, because by this point I think if you tried to kick me out again I'd just refuse to leave."

"Well, that's not going to happen."

"We_ do_ still fight."

"Yes, but only about stupid things. They never last long. Did you really expect them to stop?"

Under his sceptical gaze, she had to laugh with him and shrug. "Good point. Peaceful coexistence is probably never going to be something we achieve."

"It's peaceful enough. Too much peace is boring anyway."

"_How's life in the TARDIS been?"_

"_Alright, I suppose…lots of running and adventures…but as I say, quiet, too quiet," He muttered._

_Aliya gave him a small smile. "I can fix that."_

_His eyes softened slightly and he smiled back. "I was hoping so."_

"_You'll be telling me to shut up within a week."_

"_Probably."_

"It just occurred to me that it's been three years, and Jenny still doesn't know about this, that I'm travelling with you again. She still thinks we're mad at each other to the point of hatred. I know that we're going to go back for five minutes after we left, but I feel like it's a matter of principle that we should probably tell her soon," Aliya said, her brow furrowing into a frown.

"Good point," the Doctor agreed. "Also, didn't you say that you were living with each other?"

She nodded. "We had a two bedroom apartment. It's still got all my stuff. We could get it at the same time. I just hope that she doesn't mind me leaving."

"I'm sure she'll understand."

"I wonder if we can tell her without running into Matheson or Narke," The blonde woman muttered under her breath.

"Who are they?"

"Rex Matheson and Marion Narke. They're in the Torchwood team and are both rather unpleasant to be around."

"I thought that Hart fellow was the unpleasant one."

"_There was this mess in Mexico and-"_

"_Let me guess, you ran into a guy with a lot of weapons and a level of sass and sarcasm that would knock Romana's first body out of the park?" _

_The Doctor frowned at her. "How did you know?"_

"_Captain John Hart. Ex-time agent, ex-boyfriend of Jack's. He turned up at Torchwood recently, trying to behave to get back on Jack's good side. But he mentioned that he ran into you." _

"…_that explains a lot, actually. Seemed a bit too much of an arse to be Jack's type, but then, everyone is Jack's type." _

Aliya shook her head. "Hart's alright really. He's just a bit trigger happy and has an annoying tendency to come up with stupid nicknames for everyone. He calls Jenny 'Little Princess', Gwen 'Freckles', Esther 'Blondie', Marion 'Bitch on legs', and Rex 'America'."

The Doctor looked vaguely amused. "What about you?"

She sighed and shrugged. "He calls me Eyecandy because that's what he used to call Ianto, and when I first met him, he thought I was shagging Jack, and therefore Ianto's replacement. Even when he found out that wasn't the case, the name stuck. You can imagine how pleased I was about that." She made a face.

He frowned and regarded her suspiciously. "Why did he think you were….with Jack?"

"It's _Jack_," She said simply, and he accepted that as an answer and just nodded. "And as much as I enjoyed Jack's company, it's still not quite the same as yours."

"Because I tend to not grope you?" The Doctor said mildly. She snorted ungraciously and nodded, deciding it was best not to mention that there were times where she hadn't minded Jack's groping so much. There were some things best unsaid.

"Oddly enough there are other points in your favour. One being that you aren't a fixed point in space and time that makes me want to empty my stomach no matter how physically attractive and charming," Aliya said wryly, "Also, the psychic presence of another Time Lord can't really be replicated. Jenny is too young."

"You don't have to tell me about psychic presence. I went years after the Time War with my head empty before you turned up. And more years after our fight."

"True. Oh, another point in your favour - Jack doesn't play chess." She thought of their numerous games on the TARDIS and smiled. "And you don't make fun of my obsession with pancakes…or Sherlock Holmes. Jenny would tease me about it."

"But Sherlock Holmes is fantastic! Why would she tease you about it?"

"Because I had the entire book collection by my bed and because my human alias at Torchwood was Alison Holmes."

He grinned childishly. "Not Watson?"

"No."

"It's not bad, as aliases go."

"It's better than John Smith!"

"Oi!"

Luckily, that was when their pancakes arrived.

* * *

"Are you sure that you want me to come with you?"

Aliya's voice was barely audible, but the Doctor heard it and looked over at where she was sitting on the jump seat. Her hands were knotted in her lap the way they always were when she was nervous or unsure.

"Course I do," He said, walking over to her, "I've done it alone enough times. Besides, you miss her too."

Her lips curved upwards half an inch. "Yes, I do." She got up and they walked with linked arms to the doors of the TARDIS before stepping outside. The street was mostly bare and the Doctor was quick to duck into a shop and grab some flowers before they continued on their way.

The cemetery was empty, and the two Time Lords walked through the rows of gravestones until they got to the memorial slab under the tree that read _River Song – Confusing wife and loyal friend_. Aliya began to laugh at the inscription, having briefly forgotten what it said. The Doctor smiled tightly and placed the flowers in front of the piece of stone. The picture frame containing a picture of the three of them in Vienna was still there, along with the pencil sketch of River that the Doctor had done himself, catching her perfect likeness.

"Do you want a minute alone?" She asked her friend, and he nodded as his eyes conveyed his gratitude. She stepped out and went for a small walk past the other gravestones. She saw Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart's grave, even though she knew that he wasn't actually dead on the Doctor's personal timeline yet. The other names were all just names but were still sad. Waiting an appropriate amount of time, she leaned on a grave that looked several centuries old, some _Clara Oswin Oswald_. Oswin sounded like an odd name for someone from that time period, but then, what did she know of humans anyway?

After a few minutes, she headed back towards River's memorial. There was no body, obviously, just something that had seemed like the right thing to do after the woman's death.

The Doctor was waiting for her when she got back.

"Can I…?" Aliya indicated towards the memorial, and he smiled.

"Of course," He said, and nodded before giving her the same privacy she had given him. She knelt in front of the stone.

"I'm not entirely sure why I'm doing this," She admitted, "It's not as if you can hear me. You're in the data core of a library planet thirty centuries in the future. But…I miss you. I miss you so much, River. And so does he. I can still see it in his eyes, sometimes he just stares and I can tell that he's thinking about you. I wish I could have taken your place. Not that you would have let me, and not that I would have. I love you, but not enough to rewrite time. It's your own fault, you had to go and make yourself too damn important to save." She sniffed and blinked away tears that had gathered in her eyes. "But I'm looking after him, I promise, just like you told me to. We may have gotten into a giant fight and yelled at each other until he kicked me out of the TARDIS and we were so angry that we hated each other…but luckily we somehow managed to get past that, after a long while."

She ran a hand through her hair.

"But yes. I miss you. Far too much. But wishing you were here does nothing, so I should probably stop. Emphasis on the probably, because that's obviously never going to actually happen." A tear ran down her cheek and she brushed it away. "We'll be back, I promise." Her eyes flicked to the photograph, where they were all grinning and laughing, River's eyes sparkling with her usual mischievous merriment. "Don't get into too much trouble while we're gone." She chuckled morosely at her own bad joke and got to her feet.

The Doctor was waiting for her several metres away, and they wordlessly hugged each other tightly for several moments before exiting the cemetery with their arms interlocked again.

* * *

Chinese checkers flew across the room and hit the Doctor square on the head.

"You're insufferable!"

"And you're a bad loser!"

"You cheated!"

"I did not, you just can't admit that you're rubbish at Chinese Checkers!"

She threw the board at him. He ducked and it went over his hand and landed on the floor with a crash. "I hate you," She said, and left the room. He followed her, yelling after her indignantly.

"No you don't, you idiot!"

She snorted though didn't turn around or slow down. "That's rich, coming from the man who has the mental age of a five year old and leaves his brakes on just because he likes the noise!"

"It's a great noise!" He protested. "You like the noise too, do you even hear how stupid you're being?"

"Your _face _is stupid!" She barked. He halted and went quiet, making her also stop in her tracks. She turned around and saw him trying to hold in quiet laughter.

"I'd forgotten how bad your comebacks are," He chuckled, and her – admittedly rather irrational - anger dissipated instantly and she began to chuckle with him.

"So had I," She said weakly, and they just smiled at each other until she frowned. "But you don't actually think I like that noise, do you?"

He mirrored her frown. "Of course you like the noise."

"No, I don't, it's stupid and bad for the ship," She told him, and he gasped, his face showing how offended he was.

"Take that back!"

She crossed her arms and lifted an eyebrow at him. "No."

"Last warning."

"You don't scare me, Oncoming Storm, not when I can remember you wearing decorative vegetables and cat pins."

"Alright, that is it, I am sick of you constantly disregarding my authority-"

"Your authority?!"

And just like that, they were off again.

* * *

They were in the middle of her third swimming lesson – continuing from the two he had given her back before the fight – when a thought occurred to her.

"So, my TARDIS is still out there, right? You touched it, it dematerialised to reveal where I was trapped, and now could be anywhere in time and space."

He straightened up in the water of the TARDIS swimming pool to eye her with a curious frown. "At least six years since I found you, and that only just occurred to you?"

That made her pause and push her short hair back from her face, slicking it back. "It occurred to you and you didn't bring it up?" She raised her eyebrows.

"Well, yeah," He said warily. "Didn't think it was important."

"You didn't think my TARDIS was important?" She repeated incredulously. "For time's sake, I might not have the bond with it that you have with yours – no Time Lord ever has or will – but that's still my TARDIS."

"Sorry."

"So, can we look for it after this, then?"

He was quiet for a moment. "Why?"

"…because I want to find it. That's the general point of searching for something, isn't it?"

"But why do you want to find it?"

She blinked at him and then snorted. "Not so that I can leave, if that's what you're worried about."

He shook his head, but the look in his eyes suggested that she was right. "No, you just want to find the machine that would enable you to travel the universe, without me."

Aliya stared at him with disbelief. "You realise that 75% of the appeal of travelling the universe is travelling with my best friend? I don't want to go anywhere in it, I just want to find it and be sure that it's okay." He relaxed slightly, apparently believing her. She huffed and rolled her eyes. "I was _going _to offer it to Jenny. She likes working at Torchwood _now _but in a century's time, she might feel differently, especially with _your_ genes."

The Doctor's mouth opened and shut several times in surprise. "Oh. That's…very nice of you."

"Well, I don't need it, do I?"

Her words seemed to please him. "No, I suppose not."

She beamed and headed to the edge of the pool and climbed out. "Good. So we'll head to Karn tomorrow and try and get some readings from where it last stood that might give us an idea of where it went?"

"Okay, no, that's not happening," The Doctor's voice said abruptly.

"What?" She turned around to look back at him. "Why not?"

"I'm not taking you back to that mountain where you were trapped, Aliya, it could still be dangerous!"

"We don't need to go inside!"

"We're not going, and that's the end of it."

"I don't need you to come, I'm perfectly able to get there on my own," She retorted angrily.

"You will do no such thing." He began to get out of the pool himself. "My TARDIS, my rules."

"_My _TARDIS, _my _rules!" Dripping on the floor and still in her black one piece, she stalked out of the room to go and get dressed, but he followed her.

"I'm not letting you do this."

"What happened to 'very nice of you'?" She said sarcastically.

"I realised that finding it would be dangerous. Besides, Jenny doesn't need a TARDIS, because she'll be travelling with us," He said offhandedly.

That statement explained a lot and she let out a sigh of frustration as she turned to face him. "You could have just said that it's about Jenny! Look, I get it, you want her here, and that's fine, she's your daughter, and my friend, and it'll be great. But she's an adult, at least in terms of independence. If she eventually wants to travel on her own, or with a companion of her own, she should be able to, and I want to give her that opportunity."

He glared. "You know, I think sometimes you need reminding that you might have been a mentor of sorts to her but you are not her mother."

"I am perfectly aware of that, but I consider her to be a very close friend and I know that she can look after herself, and that at some point she will want to have a life away from her father," Upon seeing the Doctor's sullen look, she was quick to add, "Though hopefully not for a long while yet. But she is an independent adult and you need to remember that. Remember that I've actually spent more time with her than you have," Aliya said, and he didn't look impressed. Quite the opposite.

"You go too far, Aliyanadevoralundar," He said in a low tone, "She's _my _daughter."

"Then act like a father," She snapped, and turned away before he could say another word. When she got back to her bedroom, she slammed the door shut and let out an annoyed yell as she pealed her swimsuit off and replaced it with clothes. All the while, she was muttering to herself. "Arrogant…stubborn…arse…_mine_…might as well be…looked after her more than him…"

She would find her TARDIS, with or without his help.

* * *

The argument about the TARDIS lingered between them, and for two days they had very little contact despite being in the same ship. It wasn't until the Doctor came into the console room and found her at the console that they even spoke.

"What are you doing?"

"Scanning," Aliya replied stiffly. "Nothing's come up, though."

"Then maybe you just weren't meant to find it."

She rolled her eyes. "Shut up."

Before he could answer, the ship jolted into flight of its own accord and the two occupants yelled as they were thrown around the console room. When the ship came to a halt, the Doctor was righting himself and fixing his bowtie while Aliya had fallen ungracefully to the floor and was climbing to her feet and brushing imaginary dust off of her jeans.

"What the hell just happened?" She asked. The Doctor frowned thoughtfully.

"She's done this before, a few times…last time being the time she found you – well, your TARDIS."

She brightened. "So she might have found it?"

He sighed. "I suppose."

They left the TARDIS wordlessly and stepped out into a forest, with thin trees and grass of a faded green colour. They began to walk to the light that suggested the forest's edge.

"This place seems familiar," Aliya said quietly, "I feel like I should remember."

The Doctor was meanwhile glancing around him and muttering to himself, "Can't be…"

When they reached the edge of the trees, they saw a village nearby and headed for it. A house on the edge had a small wooden shed against the outside wall closest to the tree line. On a hunch, Aliya walked up to it and pressed her hand on the wooden panels. The hum under her palm told her all she needed to know.

"This is it, it's here," She whispered, and took a moment to send an excited grin back at him before she yanked the door open and darted inside. The large console room was just as she had left it, centuries before.

The console itself was situated on a higher platform, with ramps coming off it in three different directions, one ramp leading down to the door, another off to the corridors and other rooms, and another down to the space below the console in case of maintenance issues. The room was a bright white – much like the Doctor's console room had once been – but the console and time rotor themselves were silver with black and gold controls.

She heard the Doctor come in behind her. "I'd forgotten what it looked like," He said, and she turned around to see him taking the sight in with interest.

"I didn't."

"I only came in here once or twice."

"Good point." She ran up the ramp and put her hands on the console. "Hello girl. It's been a while." She thought she heard the ship hum, but a life-sized hologram appeared next to her that immediately took all of her attention.

"_If you're hearing this, then it means that you're alive and you've found the ship." _

Romanadvoratrelundar, the last Lady President of Gallifrey and ex-companion of the Doctor, in surprisingly plain clothes considering she should have been wearing Presidential robes, spoke in her usual measured and calm voice. Her dark eyes were focused straight ahead and her pale blue eyes were less guarded than the Doctor or Aliya could never them being in her third body.

"What?" Aliya whispered, eyeing the hologram of her cousin with wide eyes.

"_This hologram will only play when the ship registers your bio-signature. I'm not sure how long it has taken you to find the ship, and no doubt you're wondering how it is that you came to survive the Time War. That is, how you came to be inside a void inside a mountain on Karn. The answer is reasonably simple. I put you there."_

Aliya gasped and her hand flew to her mouth at the same time that the Doctor came to join her at the platform, eyes as wide as hers.

"_You would never have survived the war and yet you felt the obligation to fight. But I could never justify saving one person, not when the children were fighting too. So it had to be a secret, for only the two of us to know, not even the Doctor could be told." _

That was when Romana shifted her weight before looking up again.

"_Doctor," _Evidently she knew that the two of them were not likely to be apart, _"I'm going back to Gallifrey to tell you that she died trying to attack the Daleks prematurely. I'm not sure that you'll buy it, as it obviously makes little sense, but unfortunately I have to hope that you take my word for it and your grief will cloud your logic. I'm sorry. I hope enough has passed that you will be able to forgive me for lying about something so important."_

Aliya turned to look at the Doctor with watery eyes and a confused expression. "She told you that I died trying to attack the Daleks?"

"Yes, I was leaving, she told me that you were dead," He said, frowning deeply, still shocked, "But it makes sense. She was the only one who seemed to know what had happened. No one else was able to call her out on the lie because no one else _knew_."

"_Of course, it wasn't entirely my idea. As I was still considering whether it would work, someone else came to me and oddly enough suggested the same thing. You can imagine my surprise, but I was glad to have the help." _Aliya and the Doctor exchanged a confused look at the same time that Romana closed her eyes but her chin remained high. _"Assuming that I'm not the one who freed you and led you here, I suppose I'm dead. I have a theory, you see. This war is going to consume everyone and everything. But you, Doctor, you always find a way. Other than the Master, you have the most uncanny nack for survival that I've ever seen. So I hope that I'm right. If this message is playing then it means I am, and that you've found her. I'm glad that neither of you are alone." _The President of Gallifrey opened her eyes and smiled slightly, more genuine than either of them had seen her. _"Know that both of you have my love. And Doctor…" _Her eyes shone. _"Thank you." _

The Doctor wiped a tear from his eyes as the hologram faded. "You're very welcome," He whispered to thin air.

"It was her," Aliya said, eyebrows knitted together as she spoke with utter amazement, "All this time, it was _her_." A tear ran down her cheek but she ignored it. "But what did she mean by help?"

That was when another hologram appeared, with an equally familiar face that made them both freeze completely.

The Doctor's mother was staring back at them. Her body then was young, with angular features and light chestnut hair, but eyes still bright as ever, this time a pale green. He knew that she would regenerate several times during the war and end up aged and at Rassilon's side, in protest, by the last day.

"_Hello, Theta," _She said with a small smile, _"And to you too, Aliya." _

"Mother," He said quietly, looking at her with awe and melancholy.

"Mariakanelyari," Aliya murmured, transfixed, "I should have known you would be in on this."

"_If you're watching this, then the two of you are alive, for which I am very glad. You see, Theta, I never doubted for you a second. Like the President, I know that your knack for survival will most likely see through this war, even if perhaps no one else does. But I can't stand the idea of you being alone. And since Romanadvoratrelundar would never leave her people, she isn't an option. But she had already considered finding a way to save Aliya even before I brought it up."_

She smiled at them.

"_All those centuries ago, I was unable to help you in the way that I wanted too. You two lost each other and grew apart. This is my chance to set things right. Regardless of the rest of it…you're his best friend, Aliya, and I hope that you make sure that he is not alone. I know he has all those human friends, but they are fleeting. At the very least, I want you two to have the chance of being together. I feel I owe it to you, and that you owe it to yourselves."_

The Doctor's hand found Aliya's and gave it a tight squeeze.

"_And I also thought that this would be a good time, as I likely will be dead by the time you see this, to mention that I am so very proud of you, Theta," _Mariaka smiled a smile that was clearly reserved for him and no one else. It was the smile of a mother looking at her child. _"So proud of who you became, the man you are. You stand up for what is right and save innocent lives, and see the worth in the entire universe and everyone in it. The Time Lords see you as inferior, but it is the opposite. You are so much more. So much more than just another Time Lord. Which I why I think you will be the one to live, if anyone does. I love you, my son. I hope that you are happy." _

The hologram faded and the Doctor took half a step forward, his hand reaching out as if trying to keep it there. There was a long silence as they both stood still and absorbed what had just occurred. His head dipped and she could see his eyes glistening with tears, so she gripped his hand even tighter, which made him look at her and smile weakly.

"They went out of their way to make sure that I wouldn't be alone," He whispered, "They saved you…for me."

"I suppose this means that I need to thank you for being alive," She joked, and he smiled. Then he silently pulled her close to him and held her tight, his head coming to rest on her shoulder while hers leant against his chest.

"Please don't leave," He breathed.

"Never," She assured him, finding it odd that he needed reassurance, "I never would, you're my best friend and I'm not going _anywhere_."

His fingers slid between hers where their hands were still locked together. "Good," He said, "And I'm sorry for…before. About this."

"Nothing to forgive."

"Vora?"

The new voice made both of them let go of each other and stare at the person standing in the doorway.

Aliya took a step away from the Doctor as she stared unblinkingly at the woman with turquoise hair and white skin, and most of all the dark eyes that were so familiar, despite her being significantly older than the last time they had seen each other.

"Anna?" She said in a very small voice. "Is that you?" The age didn't matter, she still resembled the teenager that Aliya had raised her to be from a small child, in her most unfriendly incarnation who had spent her life away from Gallifrey – from anyone. Anna, short for Trianna, had been the only person to touch her hearts. That little Trandonian child. The closest thing she had had to a daughter.

"Yes. The TARDIS has been here for six months now."

"Of course," Aliya began to smile as realisation hit her, "It went to the only other living inhabitant it could remember."

"And you're here with him," Anna's low voice said, sounding a little surprised, "He came here, you know, nearly a year ago. To tell me that you were alive."

That was new information. The blonde turned to look at her friend, who straightened his bowtie and looked defensive.

"She deserved to know," He said.

"But that had to have been when you were still mad at me."

"She still deserved to know."

"Thank you," She said sincerely. He just grinned.

"You're very welcome." His arms spread out. "Go on then, family reunion, hugging and crying and all that!"

They didn't need telling twice. The two females ran at each other and met in the middle of the ramp. Anna – who due to Aliya's regeneration was now the taller of the two – wrapped her arms around her adoptive mother and hugged her very tightly, lifting her slightly off the ground.

"You look older than me now," Aliya said, laughing, "Though not by much."

"Your hair is gold, like your cousin's was, it's strange," Anna replied.

"Any of our hair colours are strange to you, you lot only have one." They released each other and just grinned, the Time Lady almost laughing due to being so elated.

"It's been nearly thirty years since I've seen you," Anna said, looking at her with childish excitement in her eyes. Trandonians aged physically and mentally at half the rate of humans, and so it explained why she looked nearly thirty, having been a teenager when Aliya had dropped her on her home planet to start her own life.

But it made Aliya laugh. "It's been _hundreds_ of years since I've seen you…" Her eyes softened and her hand went to touch a stray strand of turquoise hair. "Look at you…all grown up. You know that I didn't want to leave you, don't you?"

"I know that you regenerated and you were different," Anna said, not sounding entirely happy about it, "Softer, and more sentimental. Like you are now."

"The version of me you knew was the different one."

"I know. But that was the version that raised me. She was my mother."

"When I…went back to being more like myself, I realised that I had to go back to Gallifrey. You understood that, didn't you? You were old enough to be living your own life."

Anna just smiled. "I know, Vora. And my life is good. I am not angry in any way. You raised me, and now you are here and alive. What more could I want?" Aliya just smiled, glad to know that there weren't any grudges being held. "Oh, there is someone that I want you to meet. Two someones, actually."

"Okay, let's go."

The two of them left the TARDIS with the Doctor following close behind. Playing in the grass outside were a man and a child, both laughing and playing.

"Vora, this is my husband and my son."

The man straightened up and approached them, smiling easily at the two people who were strangers to him. "This is her?" He asked his wife, who nodded. He turned to Aliya and placed his left hand on his right shoulder and bowed slightly, as was Trandonian custom. "It is very good to meet you, Vora."

"Actually, her name is…Aliya," Anna said with a wry smile. It occurred to Aliya that the names were quite difficult because her third incarnation had gone by Luna in defiance of everything she had been on Gallifrey. Only Anna had ever called her Vora. For Anna to even recall what her usual name was…was actually rather impressive. The Time Lady inwardly cursed that she had a name long enough to warrant so many different nicknames over the years. It was getting ridiculous. "Only I get to call her Vora."

"Mama, who are these people?" The child asked, coming to tug Anna's leggings. He looked about seven in human years, meaning he was probably fourteen.

"Lin, you know how I told you about my mother? The one who flew me around through space with her?" Anna asked, and the boy nodded. "Well, this is her. This is your grandmamma."

Lin's eyes widened slightly and he took a few steps towards Aliya, who got onto her knees so that she was at his level. "Why do you look so funny?" He asked with a tiny frown on his pale face that melted her hearts in half a second. He was eyeing her blonde hair and tanned skin.

She laughed. "Because I'm from another world. So is my friend. He's called the Doctor." The Doctor waved enthusiastically and beamed at the child, who grinned back.

"Oh," He said, "That's okay." With that, he gave her a hug, which made her stiffen in surprise before she quickly began to hug him back.

When he finally let go, Aliya looked over her shoulder at the Doctor. "I'm a grandmother," She said, giggling at the words she had never been able to say before.

"Yes, I suppose you are," He said, smiling at her, "It's about time, I got there about a thousand years ago."

She made a childish face at him until his words caught her and she grinned mischievously. "You were a grandmother a thousand years ago?"

His face fell. "No! Not a grandmother, a grand_parent_, you knew I meant that!" He dropped his arms to his sides after he realised that they were flapping indignantly.

"Yes, but I wanted to see you squirm for a few seconds," She admitted, "Though technically if Jenny had children, you would be a grandmother because you _are _her mother and father."

That put a very deep frown on the Doctor's face as she realised he had a point. Somehow, she thought that the possibility of being a grandmother had probably never occurred to him.

"Will you stay for dinner?" Anna asked eagerly. "Rian here," She nodded towards her husband, "Makes excellent food."

Aliya glanced at the Doctor questioningly for a moment. "Doctor?" She knew she didn't have to say any more than that.

"Of course we'll stay," He said cheerfully, and Anna nodded, looking very pleased.

"Also," Aliya began, "Is it alright if the TARDIS stays here? Because you see, I'm travelling with the Doctor, so I don't actually need it. I couldn't think of a better place for it to stay in the meantime."

"Of course," Her daughter said, and then looked between them curiously, "Though you are going to have to explain why you travelling with the man who once irritated you more than anyone in the universe."

"He's my best friend," Aliya laughed, "But that version of me was impossible to please."

"Oh, I remember very well," Anna replied wryly. She and her family went inside the house, leaving the two Time Lords alone outside.

"We don't have to stay, you know," Aliya said slowly, "You don't know her, really, and we've been here long enough, I know what you're like with domestic visits."

He shook his head and smiled. "You've been getting to know my daughter…about time I got to know yours." She couldn't help it – she beamed at him.

"You do know that you're my favourite person in the whole universe, right?"

That made him grin and his eyes sparkle with his usual ego. "Now that you mention it, yeah."

"And, on the topic of your daughter, I think we should go and tell her about this travelling thing soon," Aliya mentioned as they began to head inside, "Also, I want my Sherlock Holmes books."

"Haven't you read them all? What's the fun in a crime book if you already know the ending?"

"Homoerotic subtext, what else?" She said, smirking, and he looked at her with disbelief before rolling his eyes.

"I should have known."

"What?"

"You're a Johnlock shipper."

"I don't even know what that means!"

"You didn't happen to discover the internet while on Earth, did you?"

"I know what the internet is, but I only really used it for work. Why?"

"Absolutely no reason."

"That doesn't sound mildly suspicious at all…"

"Anyway, we've not going back there until we've had at least one more trip, I need some adventure before I make another domestic call."

"Okay, _one _more trip."

* * *

**And there we are, the beginning of In Between the Shadows! I really hope you all liked it, but good or bad or mixed, letting me know in a review would be awesome. **

**And the Doctor and Aliya are back in full swing! I have to say it is a joy and a relief to be writing them together again because that separation in DS was exhausting. But of course, they will never be quite able to coexist without bickering. :P **

**It was also really good fun to write Anna and Aliya meeting again after all this time, and technically for the first time as well, as the prequel has not reached that point yet, haha. And ROMANA AND THE DOCTOR'S MOTHER! I wonder how many of you suspected? If you want more of my interpretion of the Doctor's mother/Mariakanelyari, check out chapter 9 of the prequel, previously called Past of the Angel but now called Before It Turned To Dust. **

**I did have to slip in a bit of Doctor/Romana because, well, that along with Eleven/River is my OTP for the Doctor so how was I supposed to resist? **

**Next chapter will see the beginning of a three chapter original adventure arc! And after that, we will see Jenny/Torchwood and her reaction to the resolution of their issues. Should be interesting... :) **

**Love you all dearly,**

**MayFairy :) **


	3. Secrets in the Deep: The City

**Sorry for the delay! I'm having more trouble with this arc than I thought. **

**Anyway, thanks for everyone who has reviewed so far, it's great to hear from you and I really appreciate the feedback! **

**So here we go, have the first chapter of a new adventure arc! :) **

* * *

_Live a life less ordinary  
Live a life extraordinary with me  
Live a life less sedentary  
Live a life evolutionary with me  
Well I hate to be a bother,  
But it's you and there's no other, I do believe  
You can call me naive but...  
I know me very well (at least as far as I can tell)  
And I know what I need_

_Honey understand, honey understand  
I won't make demands  
Honey understand, honey understand  
We could walk without a plan.  
Honey understand (honey), honey understand  
I won't rest in stone all alone  
Honey understand, honey understand  
I'm all ready to go  
But you already know..._

**Life Less Ordinary – Carbon Leaf**

* * *

The TARDIS landed with its usual wheezing and the Doctor and his companion came out of it and found themselves in the midst of a large, bustling crowd.

"Where are we?" Aliya asked, taking in their immediate surroundings, which was mostly just people, people and more people.

"No idea, set the controls to random," He told her gleefully, "Though I imagine I can make an estimate." He inhaled deeply only to frown a few moments later.

"Nasal GPS not as good as you thought?"

"No, it's just…we're inside."

"But there are buildings."

The two of them looked up, and around them were various buildings, some moderately sized and others incredibly tall, all made of various materials. The travellers were on a street, and therefore presumably outside. The other thing that pointed that way was the fact that they were in a marketplace. All around them were various stalls selling all kinds of wares from food to pottery to fabric.

"Good point. Why would you have buildings inside another building?"

"Unless it's not a building…" Aliya breathed. She ran off down the street, leaving him no choice but to follow her._ Companions, _he thought with a touch of annoyance, _not even the clever ones stay put. _After at least five minutes of running, she had come to a stop and was staring up at something. He didn't realise what until he halted next to her.

"Oh," He said. In front of them was a wall of thick glass that stretched up and out of their sight, and while it looked flat enough, closer examination showed it to be part of a very large curve. "It's a dome."

"It's a citadel," His friend with a twist of irony in her voice, probably thinking of the Citadel on Gallifrey, "And I think that's water. I think we're in an underwater city."

The Doctor got out his sonic and scanned the glass in front of them. He peered at the results before putting the screwdriver back into his jacket. "Yep, that's definitely salt water out there."

"Great," She muttered, and he glanced sideways at her and was surprised to see her standing stiffly and looking rather nervous.

"Are you alright?"

She looked at him. "I'm in a giant glass dome that could theoretically break at any time, surrounded by Rassilon knows how much water, and I've had a grand total of three swimming lessons in my entire life." She snorted. "No, I'm _great_," She said sarcastically, "Not concerned at all."

The Doctor was almost amused by her worrying. "Aliya, it's not going to break."

"Can you promise me that with one hundred percent certainty?"

"Well…no."

"Exactly."

"Aliya…" He drew her name out long enough for it to make her look at him again, with expectancy replacing worry in her expression. "We'll be fine." She gave him a tiny, sheepish smile.

"I know, I just-" She sighed and before she could say another word he just wrapped an arm around her shoulders and looked down at her.

"If it helps, in the unlikely event that we get sucked out into the ocean, I promise to help you not drown," He told her, grinning at her as they looked at their reflections in the glass. Her reflection then grinned back at him.

"Alright, Doctor, now the fact that I can't swim is on your head." They began to head back to the marketplace.

"Unless I die saving you, in which case it would be back on your head along with my death," He speculated.

Aliya frowned. "I don't think we should joke about this."

"True, with our luck, it'll actually happen."

"_Your_ luck, you mean, my luck is just fine." That was when her eyes darted away from him and narrowed on something else. "Food! Can we try some?" When she looked back, her eyes were back to being bright and eager, the way his companions' eyes always would be, the way he loved to see.

"Course we can, what about some of this?" They approached a nearby store and he bought them both a ridged golden fruit that was big enough to barely fit in Aliya's hand. They simultaneously took huge bites and the Doctor found the tangy taste pleasant on his tongue. The flavour was like a cross between banana and mango and it was clear that Aliya enjoyed it too just by the look in her eyes as she swallowed her mouthful.

He indicated with his head for them to walk with it, and they continued past some more stalls while taking more bites out of their delicious new snack.

There were two noticeable species in the city from what the Doctor could see. One appeared to be your basic humans or humanoids – which was why no one had paid much attention to either of the newcomers, even if their attire was slightly different. But the other race was one that the Doctor had – he realised with slight surprise – seen once before. They were short and blue, with small silver fins protruding from just behind their ears.

"You know, I've seen this blue species before," He told Aliya, who lifted her eyebrows with interest.

"Really? Where?" She took another bite of her golden fruit.

"Your cousin tried on about four different bodies before she stuck with that princess's one," He said, recalling how against it he had been at the time, her copying someone else's appearance, "One of them was like this. Small, blue, with silver fins. But it was too short so I told her no."

Aliya laughed. "That sounds like Romana, always branching out. After all these years, I still find it odd that she copied the princess though, that's practically never heard of."

"Did you ever try different bodies on?" During their childhood on Gallifrey, it had been becoming slightly more common for female Time Lords to be able to have several bodies changes before settling on the one they wanted. For whatever reason, the males weren't able to do it.

The blonde shook her head. "No. They did give us a brief tutorial about it once, but they did say that not everyone was capable and that it was difficult to do. Not to mention dangerous. Romana was the top of her class, always an overachiever, it's not surprising that she managed it on her first attempt."

"So you never even tried it?"

"The first time, I just wanted to survive the process," She said, chuckling, "I was a bit busy growing a second heart. And the second time…well, I was hardly thinking straight. The third time-"

"What actually happened the third time?" The Doctor asked suddenly. "I just realised I never asked."

"I took a ray blast for Anna, and the regeneration was so quick that I didn't have time to even think. The time after that I think had to have been triggered by Romana when she put me in the mountain…the next couple were absorbed by the void in said mountain, and you saw my latest one, it was far too explosive to control, it just burnt through me like a-" Her voice immediately cut off and when he looked at her, her cheeks had gone pink.

Very quickly he realised the problem. As someone had once explained to a companion of his, regeneration on Gallifrey was treated much like sex was on Earth. He had explained regeneration to several of his companions, and had a very in-depth discussion with a very intrigued River Song about it. He was used to being casual about it because no one else understood the implications it should have had.

Until Aliya had been thrown back into his life. Based on how easily she had talked about it before realising, he suspected that perhaps she had discussed it with a human as well – most likely Jack.

But the two of them discussing it the way they had been, her giving him details about it, even almost saying how it had felt…he abruptly moved his eyes to look straight in front of them, and felt his own face grow warm just as hers had. Definitely over the line. Definitely inappropriate. Definitely incredibly, painfully awkward considering their past.

"Hey, a street performer, let's have a look at that!" His voice came out quite high, as it did when he was nervous. Luckily, she was in no mood to criticise or notice, she just nodded and nibbled at her fruit, probably so that she didn't have to speak to him again just yet.

The performer was of the blue species, and had drawn in a small crowd. It was hard to be entirely sure what she was doing, but it looked like a combination of hula-hooping, contortionism and juggling. Her small body twisted and moved to keep several of the hoops around parts of her body moving, while throwing others in the air and letting them fall onto one of her limbs before replacing it with one that had been on her body a moment before. It was endless and almost impossible and utterly astounding to watch.

The crowd watched raptly and when she finally came to a stop with all hoops on one arm, the group of people cheered and happily threw some small silver coins into a bowl that her friend was holding out.

As the crowd began to dissipate and move along, the Doctor approached the performer. "Can I just say that you are amazing, utterly brilliant," He told her enthusiastically, clasping her hand in greeting before she could even blink.

"Uh...thank you," She said, looking quite bewildered by his praise.

"Did it take a long time to get right?" Aliya had popped up next to him.

The girl's grey eyes flicked between them. "Yes."

"And no small amount of natural talent, I'm sure," The blonde complimented, making the other female's pale blue cheeks flush a darker blue.

"You are very kind," She said. "But somehow, not of this city, I think."

The two Time Lords exchanged a look of surprise. "How did you know?"

"Humans here would never compliment an Aquian so easily." The male Aquian joined them and eyed them with suspicion mixed with curiosity.

"Human colonists, I'm assuming," The Doctor said. "Your lot was here first?"

"You wouldn't think so with the superiority complexes most of the humans have," The female Aquian muttered.

The Doctor nodded sympathetically. "It's very common actually. For them to invade and assume dominance over the indigenous culture. They did it a lot back on their home world, Earth. Only, to each other." The Aquians looked very intrigued by his words. The male narrowed his eyes.

"You speak as if you're not one of them," He noted.

"Oh, we might look it, but me and Aliya here are nowhere close. Cross our hearts," The bow tie wearing man smiled pleasantly at them. "I'm the Doctor."

"I'm Ardi," The performer said, now smiling widely, "This is my cousin, Sif. And if you don't mind my asking, if you are not human or Aquian, then what are you? We know little of what other species inhabit the world on the surface."

"We're from a different world altogether," Aliya said, and Ardi's eyes filled with wonder while Sif just rolled his eyes.

"Impossible, biggest lie I ever heard."

Aliya lifted an eyebrow at him. "Have a lot of knowledge about interplanetary travel, do you?"

He blinked. "No."

"Then how are you possibly informed enough to be able to claim that it is impossible?"

The Doctor giggled like a delighted child. There was the Aliya that he had missed. She wasn't trying to be clever, or to make Sif look stupid (or at least, not _really_), she was genuinely curious as to why he would claim something like that without the information to back it up.

"Well, I believe you," Ardi told them, and the Doctor smiled at her.

"I rather thought you would," He said. "So do you lot not have much connection with the surface world, then?"

"We have the teleports up to the capital city, but they cost a lot of money, so most people in the Dome have never been to the surface. And if you haven't noticed, we're not exactly employed," The girl held her arms out, making the hoops still on her left one jingle.

"Though with all that's going on, that might be changing soon," Sif said to her, looking positive for the first time. She brightened and nodded.

"That's true."

"Job market looking up?" The Doctor guessed, and the two blue cousins exchanged a look.

"Not exactly," Ardi said cautiously, "But more jobs are freeing up every day. More and more humans are getting drafted. Some sort of governmental project, only none of us know what. Not even the families of the ones involved know."

"But only humans, not Aquians?"

"No, we're just filling up the jobs they're leaving behind. But it's all very hushed up."

The Doctor thought it over for a moment before glancing over at Aliya. "What do you think? Worth investigating? Psychic paper would get us into the parliament building or whatever they have here."

"Sure, if we can get another piece of that fruit on the way."

"Hang on…" Ardi frowned at them. "You can't just go and investigate at the parliament buildings. You'll be arrested, and they wouldn't tell you anything anyway. You might have the looks but if you're from a different planet you won't have credentials anywhere near valid."

"I have credentials that should do just fine," He told her, thinking of the psychic paper, "And if we do find out anything interesting…do you want us to come and tell you? After all, you told us about it."

The blue girl smiled, clearly unsure whether they were serious or not but eager all the same. "Sure. Impress me, Doctor from another world."

"I can do one better than that," The Doctor said as he and Aliya turned to leave.

"Like what?"

He turned and pointed at Sif. "I'll impress him."

As they walked back down the much emptier market street, the Doctor purchased another golden fruit for Aliya just before the stall closed. His mind was still going over all the possibilities of what the governmental project could be. Something exciting, hopefully.

"So do you really think that this hushed up project could be something worth looking into? I can see where you're coming from, but it just seems like a tiny bit of a stretch," Aliya said as she munched the fruit contently, "By the sounds of it, it's just the humans cutting out the Aquians of whatever is going on purely out of prejudice."

"Maybe, but even then, they would need a reason to do so," He considered thoughtfully, "It can't hurt to have a look. Besides, investigating is much better than sight-seeing."

"That's debatable," She muttered, and he pretended to not have heard.

"You love getting into mischief," He told her. He knew it was true. Her face would light up during their adventures, and she had a tendency to laugh while they were running for their lives. Assuming it was her fault that they were doing so. If it was his fault, she tended to yell at him instead. Talk about a double standard.

"Maybe, but I also like just being to relax and not have to worry about potentially getting arrested, thrown in jail, shot, threatened to be executed, or _drowning when the giant bloody Dome is smashed_," She said pointedly. He just rolled his eyes.

"Nothing like that is going to happen. We're going in, having a look, finding out if it is anything interesting, and leaving. Either way, we'll be back to sightseeing in a few hours."

"You say so, but it's never that simple with you, and so I'm not convinced in the slightest."

He sighed and tried to show with hand gestures how exasperated he was. "But simple is boring!"

"I know, that's why I'm not actually complaining, just making a commentary on the likely outcomes of this investigation."

The Doctor turned to look at her, smiling as he realised that she was right. He was so used to her complaining that he hadn't realised that this wasn't actually one of those times. "Have I ever mentioned that you're amazing?"

She grinned, with a slightly smug glint in her eyes. "Not sure. Feel free to do so, just to be safe."

"Aliyanadevoralundar, you are amazing."

"Ooh, I even got the full name, you must really mean it," She laughed, and he just shook his head.

"You didn't let me finish. You are amazing…if not a little indirect, repetitive and critical."

When he glanced sideways at her, she was rolling her eyes. "I should have seen that coming."

* * *

Once they had located the parliament buildings, the two travellers exchanged grins before heading inside. They were barely in the door before someone was approaching them.

"Excuse me, who are you and what are you doing here?"

The Doctor just held up the psychic paper and smiled pleasantly at the man, whose eyes immediately widened.

"Oh, my apologies, Senator," He stammered, "How can I help you?"

"I need to see the specifications on your new project," the Doctor said. The man paled slightly.

"Which one?"

"The one you seem to think I don't know about."

"Oh," The man looked slightly relieved, "I'm sorry, Senator, I just didn't know whether those on the surface were aware of the project."

"Of course we are, do you think your government does anything without our permission?"

"No, naturally, no, I must just be uninformed…"

The Doctor clapped him on the shoulder and smiled. "It's not your fault, you're only a middle man. If you could just show us to the paperwork, we'll only be ten minutes."

"Of course, sir." As he led them through the entrance hall and through into a corridor, Aliya grabbed the psychic paper to have a look.

"Your _personal assistant_?" She asked, not sounding happy about it. "Do I look like a personal assistant?"

His eyes ran over her yellow converse, denim jeans, and short tan leather jacket over what appeared to be a plain white tank top. He smirked. "No, not really. You'd need high heels and a fancy skirt."

"I don't have a problem with skirts other than the fact that they aren't massively practical," Aliya said, "But high heels? Urgh. Never in my life will I be able to walk in those things, it's impossible."

"I know, I've tried," The Doctor muttered, and her eyebrows nearly disappeared into her hairline, but before she could ask, the man leading them stopped and unlocked a door.

"The cabinet on the left at the back, sir, and I'll be right down the corridor if you need anything."

"Thank you…helpful person."

The man left the two of them in the room and shut the door on his way out.

"That was easy," Aliya commented. "So we're looking in that one?" He nodded and they began to search through it. Most of it was irrelevant, just paperwork on the shifting of jobs. But the new jobs of the humans were just listed as Project 46.

"So this Project 46 is pretty secretive, if it was just them hiding the details from the Aquians, they wouldn't have such a lack of information in here."

She nodded and tried to tug the middle drawer of the cabinet open, but it didn't budge. "What about this one? It's locked. They probably have the details in it."

"Good spotting." He took the sonic from his pocket and with a point and press, tried to open it. Tried, and failed. "Oh. It's deadlocked."

"What? That one drawer? Okay, I'm agreeing with you now, this is definitely suspicious." She sighed and went back to the folder of papers she was looking through, only to brighten a few moments later. "Hold on, I might have something. These are records of payment for mechanics…for a rather large job. Sounds like they got paid to build something."

"Submarine pods," The Doctor said, having found the answer in a folder of his own, "This is an inventory. They've had twenty built, hard to say how large. City this size though, don't reckon they would be able to afford pods that can hold more than thirty. But look at this…" She came to stand next to him and peer over his shoulder – not easy considering that he was taller than her. "Drilling equipment as well. One large one, but much smaller pieces as well. Possibly handheld, for the workers."

"So…they're leaving the city, and drilling somewhere?"

"I think so. But where? And why?" He flipped back through the paper to try and find any details he had missed. Aliya's hand stopped him.

"We'll find out, but these records are sealed and there isn't much that we can do. But there is one thing that we could try," She said.

He looked at her expectantly. "What?"

"We got friendly with two natives of the city. Why don't we ask them if there is anything around here worth drilling for? Surely they would know of some of the possibilities."

The Doctor put the file back in the cabinet and offered her his arm. "Well, who am I to argue with that? Nothing here anyway. Let's go learn about the local geography."

* * *

**Hope it was interesting enough to get you all curious! Feedback is always very welcome. :)**

**Love you all,**

**-MayFairy :) **

**p.s. I have in no way been distracted from this story by an idea for a Kate Stewart/The Rani femslash long oneshot. **

**p.p.s. Because that would be extremely weird if surprisingly enjoyable.**


	4. Secrets in the Deep: The Trove

**Merry Christmas and/or Happy non-denominational winter Holidays!**

**This chapter is my Christmas present to all of you, so enjoy! Thank you to all who have read, followed, favourited, and especially reviewed. You're all fabulous. *sends out kisses and Christmas cookies***

**Enjoy the chapter! Here we learn a bit more about what's going on, and stuff starts to progress. :)**

**p.s. please take note of the utterly AMAZING cover art by RippahGoneWolf! Thank you so much again, it's incredible and I love it so much! **

* * *

It took about half an hour for the Doctor and Aliya to find Sif and Ardi. They had spent a while locating the Aquian side of the city, and then had manually asked around until they came to a very small flat and had Ardi open the door only to be bewildered by their appearance

"How did you find us?" She asked with wide eyes.

"We asked around until we found someone who knew you," The Doctor said cheerfully, walking past her into the flat without being invited in, "And we've just been to the parliament buildings…do you want to know what we found?"

Ardi gaped but nodded, indicating for Aliya to also come in before she shut the door. "What? What did you find?"

"Absolutely nothing," The man sighed, and the Aquian deflated visibly, "All we know is that they're going outside of the city and drilling for something, but all the real details were deadlocked."

Ardi's grey eyes widened. "But that's not nothing at all! Drilling, are you sure?" Both of the travellers nodded. "How did you get access to the information?"

"Psychic paper, shows them anything they want to see, they thought I was a senator from the surface and that Aliya was my personal assistant," The Doctor explained, flapping his hand to show that it wasn't important.

"Is there anything near the city that would be worth drilling for?" Aliya asked Ardi, who shook her head.

"No, nothing. Not anything they would actually touch."

"What do you mean by that?" The blonde asked with a frown.

"Well, there's the Trove of Traquan," Ardi said. When the two Time Lords just stared at her blankly, she sighed and sat down on the couch next to the Doctor, who had already made himself at home. "Actually, I shouldn't have expected you to know about it. The humans don't even know about it, it's an Aquian secret."

"Well, we're not human, so you can tell us," The Doctor said simply.

"Alright. As you know, the Aquians were here first, we evolved and grew from this planet. Some sub-branches of our species – such as the one that is found in this city – have the ability to live underwater for prolonged periods of time. Or did, no one has tried in a few centuries. But to our entire species, water is sacred, sacred to our god, Traquan. It is said that this part of this ocean is where he resides. So, centuries ago, our ancestors apparently came across a great cavern on the sea floor. It was filled with gold, more gold than anyone could possibly spend in a lifetime. They were going to take some, but then they came face to face with Traquan himself, who warned them not to take a single piece if they valued their lives." Ardi smiled as she recounted the story. "When the city was proposed to be built centuries later, the Aquians were thrilled at the chance to live so close to somewhere so sacred, even if it meant sharing the space with the humans that treated us dubiously. But it was decided that the Trove of Traquan should not be mentioned, in case the humans disrespected it and decided to mine the gold without heeding the warning. One can never be too careful."

"Do you think it is possible that somehow they found out, and that they are mining it now?"

Ardi ran a hand over one of her silver fins as she shook her head. "No, not at all. Even if someone did find out, they would know that it is sacred, and that it's dangerous. The story comes with a warning for a reason."

Aliya glanced at the Doctor, who seemed to mirroring her expression of disbelief. From their experiences with humans, there was every chance that they were doing just that, ignoring the danger completely.

"All the same, I think we might just stick around just to be sure that it's nothing to worry about," He said, "Because we're – well, I'm – quite good at helping people get out of trouble. So, we might just go and have a look around the city and then get back to proper investigating in the morning." He hopped up off the couch.

"But you can't!" Ardi protested. "There's a curfew in ten minutes. If they catch you outside after that, then they could arrest you." Aliya sighed at the same time that the Doctor looked horrified.

"Well that's just rubbish!" He exclaimed. He sank back onto the couch. "In that case, can we stay here for the night? We'll be quiet, I promise."

The blue girl eyed him and then his companion. "Sure…" She said, not sounding sure about it at all, "But there's only that couch, and there's two of you."

"No problem," The Doctor said with an easy smile, "Aliya and I don't sleep much anyway, shouldn't need any tonight. I'm sure we'll find a way to pass the time."

"You'll have to do so on your own, I need to get some sleep," Ardi headed towards the doorway into a very small hallway, "And by that I mean right now."

"That's fine," Aliya told her, "Good night." Ardi nodded and with that, left them alone.

"So, I was thinking that in the morning we could pose as workers for the project and get to the actual site of the drilling, see if it is this Trove of Traquan or something completely different," The Doctor mused.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Aliya said warily as she came to sit on the couch next to him. "And what are we going to do all night?"

"I think I've got something…" He reached into his jacket pocket, dug around for a few seconds, and pulled out a packet of cards. "Ah, there we go. Fancy a few games?"

"I don't think I know any games. Maybe a few of the names, like Poker and Snap. Oh wait, no, I know Snap!" Aliya felt incredibly pleased with herself. Then she frowned. "Of course, I was drunk at the time."

The Doctor, from where he had gotten onto the floor to start dealing the cards, looked at her incredulously as she joined him. "Drunk?"

"Jack and I played it. There was whiskey involved, I think," She recalled.

He didn't look very impressed. "Do I even want to know what else you got up to at Torchwood? Jack might be one of my best friends, but he's not a good influence on someone like you."

"Someone like me?"

"You know."

"No, I don't, actually," Aliya said, crossing her arms, "Do you mean some who is a thousand years old? Someone who's blonde? Someone who happened to be a little emotionally unstable at the time?"

His brow furrowed in concern. "Emotionally unstable isn't exactly the term I would have used. Hang on, was this the first time or the second time?"

"First," She said quietly, eyes on the cards.

"Then I definitely don't understand. Why were you emotionally unstable?"

"Bit personal," She muttered.

He made a noise between a snort and a giggle. "Bit past that, aren't we?"

"Not necessarily." She took her pile of cards and gripped it tightly. "Just because we've known each other for a long time, know a lot about each other, consider ourselves to be the best of friends and spend all our time together, doesn't mean that we tell each other personal details."

He just lifted an eyebrow at that. A few seconds later, he said, "Was it River?"

She let out a breath of relief that he had guessed – one half of it at least. "Yes. Imagine having to sit on Earth knowing that you'd just said goodbye to one of your best friends but couldn't make it sound like a final goodbye because spoilers and you were never going to see her again and you had to sit around until your other friend who was her husband came back and you knew that he was going to be mourning her and-" Suddenly out of breath, she gulped in air to try and calm herself down, not liking how the Doctor was eyeing her with concern and sympathy. She had spoken faster and faster without stopping until she just couldn't continue, and was now trying push away the unpleasant memories. She rubbed her forehead. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"Don't apologise," He said softly, "I forgot what it had to have been like for you. I've been so caught up in what it was like for me that it didn't really occur to me." He sighed. "I'm just a selfish old man in the end. Not that you really need telling that."

Aliya just shifted so that she was sitting cross-legged. "I'm thinking that I wasn't just emotionally unbalanced at the time. I think I just _am _emotionally unbalanced."

She wasn't sure what she expected him to say. Maybe look worried for her, or tell her that she wasn't, but he did neither. Instead, he just gave her a funny little smile.

"Aren't we all?" And somehow, that made her feel so much better than anything else he could have said.

They played Snap for nearly an hour, and tried to be reasonably quiet about it for Ardi's sake, but there were a few times that they couldn't help but starting loudly arguing about whose hand had gotten there first. Then they switched to Go Fish, which Aliya spent half an hour criticising how idiotic the whole term 'go fish' was, only for the Doctor to retort that he thought she felt the need to complain because she was losing.

Which was certainly not the case. It was a stupid game with a stupid name, and she was not at all prejudiced.

"I've had enough of cards," She eventually said, about two hours in.

"Fair enough," He said, and they were soon back on the couch.

"Now what?"

"I don't know, I'll think of something." A few minutes later he went back to digging in his pockets, to ultimately pulled out a small novel. "There we go, time for a bit of reading, maybe."

Aliya gaped when she saw it. "_Hound of the Baskervilles_?"

"Of course. I always carry a book with me, in case of impending boredom. Shall I read, or you?"

"You, at least to start with," She said, and leaned against his shoulder so that she could rest her head on it, unable to keep a smile off her face even as he merely opened the book to the first page.

"Mr Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings, save upon those not infrequent occasions when he stayed up all night, was seated at the breakfast table," The Doctor read, "I stood upon the hearth-rug and picked up the stick which our visitor had left behind him the night before…"

* * *

When a sleepy eyed Ardi entered the room in the early morning, Aliya held the book and was reading to the Doctor, who was stretched out on the couch and had his head half in her lap, his eyes shut.

"A woman of Spanish blood does not condone such an injury so light. And now, my dear Watson, without referring to my notes, I cannot give you a more detailed account of this curious case. I do not know that anything essential has been left unexplained…" She trailed off as she spotted the third person in the room. "Good morning, Ardi. Did you sleep well?"

"Well enough," The girl answered, just as the Doctor's eyes opened and his body swung around so that he was sitting properly on the couch next to Aliya, who shut the book with a sigh – they were on the penultimate page – and handed it back to him for him to return to his jacket.

That was when the entire room began to shake, and judging by the yells that could be heard on the floors above and below, it was throughout the whole building. Or perhaps further than that.

"Is seismic activity common here?" Aliya asked Ardi, who blinked at her.

"Do you normally get earthquakes?" The Doctor tried, and the girl shook her head.

"No, never. That was…frightening."

Sif burst into the room then, and looked alarmed to find other people in the apartment. "What the hell are you doing here and what the hell was that?"

"We were just leaving, and that was an earthquake, we think," The Doctor said to him as he pulled Aliya up from the couch and they headed to the door. "Thank you for your hospitality, but we'll be on our way." Before either of the Aquians could say another word, they left the flat and headed down the building until they were back on the street.

"So we're going to the submarine deployment site to pretend to be workers, then?"

"Exactly. That Trove of Traquan sounded exactly like the sort of thing they would be drilling for, if they think there's money in it," He said.

"How much of the story do you think is true?"

He frowned thoughtfully. "Hard to say. Assuming that the person claiming to be Traquan actually existed, and assuming that there was actually gold, why would he have been there in the first place and is he even still there now? Considering how long ago it was, that's not likely."

"There's too many holes in the story. None of the information is concrete in any way," Aliya agreed, almost getting a headache just from thinking about it, "Our best shot is to just wait and see what we find, because speculation is going to get us absolutely nowhere in this situation."

"I couldn't agree more."

* * *

Getting into one of the subpods leaving the city was surprisingly easy with the psychic paper, even if the man in charge had given their clothing a few odd looks.

So they sat in their seats and tried to not do anything that would make them stand out amongst all the humans in the pod, who thankfully didn't seem too interested in the new arrivals. It was a fairly short trip, and everyone in the pods put on oxygen and pressure suits that would allow them to move freely on the ocean floor.

Being in a suit actually made Aliya feel considerably safer, and she actually considered trying to steal it before deciding that perhaps she was being just a _little _ridiculous.

There was no way for them to communicate inside the suits – the com links inside were only between the workers and their commander. So they just followed what everyone else was doing and reluctantly began to head into the cave.

The inside was a large cavern of rocks, but bright golden glints were visible all around. With their suspicions confirmed, the two Time Lords had no choice but to work as miners until the end of the shift.

* * *

When they were finally off the subpod and back in the City, they both let out sighs of relief as they began to walk away.

"So it _is_ the Trove of Traquan," Aliya said, and the Doctor nodded. "Except, Ardi said that it was a cavern filled with more gold than any person could ever spend. There were only flecks, it was mostly rocks."

"It was a long time ago, I think that rocks have formed over the real mother lode, and the mining is to reach it. The flecks on the top are just being picked up because it would be stupid to waste them."

"According to the legend, removing the treasure results in some kind of danger. Do you think that part of it could be somehow true?"

The Doctor frowned as they turned a corner and ended up back in the market which they had arrived in the day before. "I don't know. But Ardi did say that they didn't get earthquakes, and there was definitely one this morning. Could be a sign of trouble brewing."

"They mine gold in a sacred cavern and it results in an earthquake, in at least partial concurrence with the local legend," Aliya recapped, more to herself than anything, "I really don't like the sound of that." Then something else occurred to her. "Earthquakes can cause a lot of damage. If we get any more, who knows what will happen? They could break the dome and we could all drown."

The Doctor came to an absolute stop and turned around to look her in the eye. "So help me, Aliya, if I hear one more word about the dome, when this is all over I will purposely fly above the ocean and _drop you in it_."

"You're full of shit," She said confidently, rolling her eyes.

"Alright then. I'll sneak into your bedroom and dump an entire bottle of maple syrup over your head while you're sleeping and then throw glitter on you so that you can never get it out of your hair."

Her jaw dropped and she stared at him with utter horror. "That's just cruel."

"Well then," He smiled pleasantly, his eyes the only things conveying the threat, "You'd better keep very quiet about the dome."

She just huffed and pushed ahead of him. Soon enough, they found Ardi and Sif in almost exactly the same spot as the previous day. Ardi's tricks were no less impressive and they waited until she was finished twirling before joining the crowd's applause.

As the people bustled away back to whatever it was that they had been doing, the Doctor and Aliya approached their Aquian friends once again.

"Where have you two been, then?" Ardi asked.

"At the mining site," Aliya said, and got the reaction of complete shock that she had been anticipating.

"It _is _the Trove of Traquan. There's rocks blocking the floor of the cavern, but the gold must be underneath it and they're practically through," The Doctor said, "And there's every chance that part of that legend is true, that the earthquake this morning is a result." Ardi and Sif looked at each other. Their eyes burned with fury, betrayal and injustice.

"I can't believe that they would actually do it," She said.

Sif just scowled. "I can. But they haven't quite made it yet. There's still time."

"Yes, now, if we go to the Parliament and explain the risk-" The Doctor began, only to be cut off.

"They would not listen," Ardi told him firmly, "All that is left to do is spread the word. We Aquians have cowered for too long. We have taken their oppression. But they have gone one step too far. They have spat on our religion and our history, and shown that they don't even respect us."

"But there's a lot of us. Same amount as humans. And if we tell everyone…we can make them sorry," Sif agreed. The two Time Lords exchanged looks.

"I think we should go for something a little more diplomatic," Aliya said.

Sif laughed sourly. "As if they would pay us any attention. But if we get every Aquian to stand up in protest…we would have enough power to destroy the mining equipment and the submarine pods, enough power to make them sorry that they ever went behind our backs…" He took his cousin's hand. "Thank you for the information, both of you, but this is our fight. We can take it from here. Unless you wish to stand with us, which would be welcome, but obviously you are not obliged to." The two of them ran off down the street and disappeared around a corner.

The Doctor stared after them. "Oh dear. I think we just gave them enough ammunition to start a civil war."

"Then what do we do?"

He glanced around silently, and she could practically hear the cogs in his brain whirring as numerous thoughts raced through his head. Eventually his shoulders deflated. "I don't know."

"But what if it's just a protest?" She pointed out. "What if they just intend to make the parliament understand?"

"It didn't sound like that to me, but I suppose there isn't much we can do but wait and see. You're right, we don't know for sure if violence is their intention. We'll do our best to help, but we need to know what it is we are fixing first."

"So we just wait?"

"Yes."

She looked at him with hopeful eyes. "Does waiting involve getting more of that fruit from yesterday?"

He grinned. "I don't see why not. Good plan. We can play a few more games of cards, too."

"I think I've had about as much Snap and Go Fish as I can handle," Aliya said honestly.

"That's alright, I'll teach you another one. Nyssa invented it when she found a pack of cards on the TARDIS. Brilliant girl in more ways than one," The Doctor said fondly as they headed towards the fruit stall.

Aliya nodded. "I remember very well. Pretty, a cybernetics genius, and without exaggeration the nicest person I've ever met. Though what would you expect? She did come from a society that pretty much existed to be nice to people."

Once they had their fruit, it wasn't much longer after that before they could literally hear trouble brewing. Between the whispers of Aquians all around them, and surprisingly large groups of them moving through the streets, it was obvious that something worth being present for was about to go down.

"They're all going in the same direction," Aliya noted, and got a nod from the Doctor.

"Towards the parliament building."

It went unspoken between them that they would follow, and so as nonchalantly as they could, they went with the flow of the Aquians around them until eventually they ended up at the parliament building. The sheer number of small blue people there was astounding, inspiring, and concerning all at once.

If the Aquians found it strange that there were two – supposed – humans amongst them, none of them brought it up. All were too preoccupied with their angry shouting at the small group of human politicians and governmental workers who had come out of the building to stare uncomprehendingly at the huge mob before them.

Several different chants were coming from the crowd of Aquians. 'Leave the Gold', 'Respect Traquan', and 'The mining stops now' were a few of them.

One of the humans had found himself a microphone or loudspeaker of sorts. "I have no idea who has been feeding you this nonsense, but I assure you that I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Liar!" One very loud Aquian shouted who sounded suspiciously like Sif.

"The Trove of Traquan must be left undisturbed or else everyone in this city is in danger!"

"No one has touched it!"

"We have people on the inside who told us everything! About the mining, about the subpods, about how the rocks have grown over the gold in the cavern so you haven't reached the gold yet," The owner of the loud voice stood up on several boxes, revealing Ardi. "So stop acting innocent. By mining there, you gamble with all our lives."

The human looked very flustered, and his cheeks were almost red enough to match his ginger hair. "I will not be bullied because of an old superstition!" It was clear that her knowledge of the details had thrown him completely.

"Even without the danger, it is a _blatant _disrespect of our religion and our culture for you to have even considered touching the place," Another Aquian shouted, an elderly man with fire in his eyes.

"Alright, I've had enough of this," The Doctor muttered, and he pulled Aliya to the front of the crowd, pushing past Aquians until they were suddenly between the two groups – right in No Man's Land. "Listen! Everything that Ardi just said is true. And it might be a legend, but there could be truth in it." He turned to the ginger man. "We were the ones who went to the site, and you've almost reached the gold, and suddenly you get an earthquake, the first earthquake anyone here can remember, am I right?"

The Aquians chorused in agreement, despite many of them looking puzzled about why a human was speaking for them.

"So, what if the danger is real?" He asked the human. "What if the closer you get, the more earthquakes there are? What if a real disaster occurs?"

"It's just fairytales, old religion," The man said weakly.

"Even if that's true, you are still destroying and degrading a sacred religious site which has tremendous value to half of the citizens in your city," The Doctor reminded him, voice just a tiny bit lower and that little bit more dangerous, "And what person could call themselves decent after doing that?"

For several seconds, he got no reply. Then the human turned around and shouted to those behind him, "Arrest these two for industrial espionage and trespassing."

"What the-" Aliya began angrily, only to get cut off as the humans surrounded the two Time Lords before they could move, and the black plastic cuffs trapped their hands behind their backs as they were dragged into the parliament building despite the protests of the Aquians.

But right before they got in the door, the whole ground shook and everyone swayed and staggered. The ginger turned to look at the Doctor with wide eyes.

The Doctor just shook his head. "You see? It's happening again! Worse than last time because you're closer!" He yelled.

"Take them away!"

So as the city finally stopped shaking and the Aquians were pushed back from the parliament building by force, the Doctor and Aliya were thrown in a jail cell. They had only been in there five minutes when the shaking began again.

* * *

**Hope you liked it! And yep, the classic Doctor and companion ending up in some kind of jail trick. An oldie but a goodie. Next chapter we might get a little flashback to the first time they got imprisoned post-fight. :) **

**So, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays once again, hope you're enjoying yourselves. And now we just have to sit back and wait for the Christmas Special with chocolate and tissues at the ready. If anyone needs to come and cry with me, I'll be around. :P**

**GOODBYE MATT SMITH I LOVE YOU**

**AND WELCOME PETER CAPALDI I KNOW THAT I _WILL _LOVE YOU**

**Much love,**

**-MayFairy :) **


	5. Secrets in the Deep: The Gold

_It was the time of the morning that was really still the middle of the night. The planet was called Rascalli, and they had been unlucky enough to come across the scene of a murder - just before the authorities arrived and deemed them responsible._

_The moon was visible through the window of their cell. Unfortunately, moonlight wasn't the only thing that could get in. The cold night air whistled through the bars and made both occupants of the cell shiver from where they were sitting on the stone floor that their ankles were shackled to._

_"Oh, I have _missed_ this," Aliya said with sarcasm and an easy half laugh. "Freezing in a jail cell. Brilliant. I bet you show all your girls this particular wonder of the universe."_

_"You got me," He replied, "Frequent flyer's privilege. Inevitably ending up in jail."_

_"And you wonder why they don't stick around." There was a brief silence, and she grimaced and wondered if perhaps it had been the wrong thing to say. But then he laughed, hiding his sadness if he felt any._

_"You do."_

_"Believe me when I say that I am just as confused as you are as to why that is," She replied. It was far from true, but sounded good. Perhaps his delay in answering was his way of processing the overwhelming amount of bullshit her statement had contained._

_When he did speak, his voice was quiet and curious. "Why are you always so quick to act like you don't want to be here?"_

Because it makes me feel like this is under my control,_ she thought hopelessly, _Like you're optional.

_Of course, she would never tell him that, and instead chose not to answer. As a result, they fell into a silence lasting up to half a minute._

_Eventually the Doctor spoke again. "You know, I'd forgotten how much more bearable this imprisonment business is when I have company."_

_Aliya glanced at him and was torn between wanting to laugh again and wanting to shake her head and tut. "The fact that it happens to you often enough to be able to say that is concerning."_

_"As if you aren't getting used to it," He said, "We got this loads of times before. And look at us now - barely back at it for a month and we're already here." His head turned to face her. In the dim shadows, his angular features were augmented, and Aliya found herself staring just a moment longer than she should have. In the end she just shrugged and gave him a small smile._

_"I'd rather be in jail with you than walking free with anyone else," She admitted truthfully. That made him look at her with interested, wide eyes._

_"Really?" When she nodded, he leant his head back again the brick wall and chuckled almost to himself. "You know, that might be one of the nicest things anyone's ever said to me. Certainly the nicest thing you've said to me in a while."_

_"And? I'm not obligated to be nice to you. Quite the opposite."_

_Another pause, this time followed by a long exhale of breath. "You're still...angry at me, aren't you?"_

_She didn't reply. Not immediately. She just sighed, and then said, "Yes. Maybe. I - I don't know. I just keep expecting this to be false somehow. A dream. A trick. That this is all in my head or that any second you're going to dump me back on Earth and laugh in my face."_

_He blinked, and his face softened. "You really think that I would do that?"_

_"It's not exactly the most unfounded fear," Aliya snapped. Her arms wound around her torso as she frowned. "A pretty apology and a month of adventures can't just erase what happened. Soften it, yes. Maybe even disprove it. But it still happened and it will always have happened."_

_"Believe me, I am aware," the Doctor said, rather darkly. "Being told that you're going to die alone and cold with no one left to care about you...not the sort of thing one easily forgets."_

_She fell silent and felt warmth flood her cheeks. Not the nice kind of warmth brought on by embarrassment or affection, but the unwelcome warmth of guilt and shame. "I'm sorry. You know that I didn't mean it."_

_"Neither of us did. It's not as if you're worth 'so much' less than any of my other companions. And...and I should never have said what I did about River. That you waited for her to die so that you could...you know."_

_"Good," Aliya said firmly, "Because I think that was the worst thing out of all of it for me. It demeaned my relationship with you, and both of our relationships with her. River Song isn't someone that is suddenly just 'out of the picture'." She paused. "I know that I think about her all the time. I imagine you have it even worse."_

_He just nodded. "She and I used to end up in prisons a lot, even more than usual. Not including her cell at Stormcage."_

_"And what did you two do to pass the time?"_

_His silence was so pointed that she glanced at him, only to see that his cheeks had gone pink. His unspoken answer was clear as day, and within a second, her cheeks flushed too._

_"Oh. Right."_

_It was some time before he spoke again._

_"It's nice just talking. Especially when we need to talk about-"_

_"So many things," She said softly. "But let's not talk about the fight anymore. We forgave. While forgetting isn't really an option, constantly bringing it up again won't help. What we said...is best left."_

_What she didn't say but thought he probably knew, was that talking about the fight would make it too easy for any of the topics to come up and spark a new fight altogether. Because despite what they said, both sides had said things that were true, things they should never have said under any circumstances. And those harsh truths were better to just be laid to rest. Blanketed behind the vague 'I didn't mean it' and 'I'm sorry'._

_"I like the sound of that." His hand reached across the gap between them to take hers from where it sat on her knee. Her gaze followed before deviating to rest on his face. He gave her hand a squeeze. "Really though, Aliya. I like just sitting here and talking. I'd rather be in jail with you than in jail with anyone else. Maybe even River."_

_She laughed, half with disbelief. "I'm sure. Just sounds like more pretty words. I appreciate the effort, but River was your wife, and I haven't forgotten Rule Number One. That sounded a lot like a prime example. A nice example, an enjoyable example, but an example nonetheless."_

_"I might not be lying. I might have gotten to the point where your friendship takes precedent."_

_She just snorted and gently took her hand out of his to put it between her knees. "Unlikely."_

* * *

The cell in the underwater city was comfortable. At least compared to some of the others that the Doctor had encountered. A nice and mild temperature, walls not made of hard stone, small benches made of a kind of curved plastic that was rather comfy...not much to complain about.

Except for the fact that every minute they were in there was another minute that he couldn't be helping with the impending civil war and potential unknown danger lying outside the city. His mind raced through the endless possibilities that could result in a successful escape, but none of them were sounding particularly good. They'd really gone and done it this time.

That was when movement right next to him snapped him out of his thoughts and brought him back to the cell. Aliya, who had just sat down close enough that their shoulders brushed, offered him a smile.

"What's going through that head of yours?" She asked, her eyes light and playful despite their situation.

He shrugged and smiled easily back at her. "Escape plans unlikely to work, mostly." The second that the last word was out of his mouth, an earthquake shook them. Both of them were so accustomed to it by that point that their only reaction was to flick their eyes to the ceiling for a moment to ensure it wasn't about to fall.

"Fifth earthquake since we were put in. And it's only been 3 hours, 18 minutes and 24 seconds," Aliya noted, understandably not looking happy about it.

"Whatever's happening, it's speeding up. Like contractions, only with earthquakes."

She shot him a confused look. "What are contractions?"

He laughed. "Human thing," He passively gestured in a way that wasn't massively helpful, "To do with babies. Possibly not the best topic for me to explain right now." He frowned. "Unless you _want_ to discuss the human reproductive cycle, in which case I can explain."

"No, that's fine," She said wryly, almost laughing herself. "Definitely not a topic of interest or necessity."

"No, it wouldn't be," He agreed, "I only know so much because I lived with so many of them. Not many reproducing ones, but still. You...pick things up."

She chuckled, apparently enjoying the thought of him having to learn the fundamentals of primitive alien reproduction from talkative companions and trips to Earth that had, rather oddly, gone astray.

"That's quite enough said about that, I think," She said, with a tiny smirk and a shake of her head. "Did any of those escape plans of yours have any integrity whatsoever?"

"On a scale of one to ten..." He made a face. "No."

"No on the scale of one to ten?" She asked, lifting her eyebrow before grinning. "Wow, we really are screwed."

"You know, I don't know why it has to be my job!" He told her. "You're clever, you come up with a plan."

She stared. "Do you think that I'm not trying to?" Her hand ran through her hair, giving away that she was nervous. "It's not my best area to begin with, and like you said, no. Just...nothing that has any chance of working. The cell is solid and the guards don't even talk to us."

"We could try the one where one of us pretends to be ill and then we overpower the guard, but I'm not so sure that it will work now that I'm no longer in my third body."

"Right," She said, nodding, "Dashing hero and expert of Venusian martial arts, that would have been helpful. Neither of us are much good at hand to hand combat. Or any kind of combat for that matter."

"Actually, I'm not bad with a sword," The Doctor said to her, making her blink and frown with disbelief.

"Really?"

"Yeah, who do you think taught Julie D'Aubigny how to fight? River and I did, years back."

"Who was Julie D'Aubigny?"

"17th century bisexual swordswoman who was also an opera singer. Made for very interesting company. Until..."

"Until?"

"She took a bit too much of a liking to River, so we left her to it before she could try anything. For some reason, the fact that River was married didn't deter her very much."

When Aliya laughed that time, it was the loud and hearty laugh that he particularly enjoyed.

"It makes sense," She said, grinning from ear to ear, "River is actually the kind of person who _would_ attract the affections of a bisexual swordswoman and opera singer. Because she was beautiful, glamorous, _and_ dangerous."

"You don't have to tell me," He said, giving her a crooked smile, and she nodded.

"True."

Again, they fell into silence, but such was the danger of talking about River Song. Sometimes it made them nostalgic, and other times it made them sad. Either way, they had found that it was best to keep mentions of her short, so as not to dwell on the loss that they still both keenly felt.

Activity at the door of their cell made their heads snap to the left to look there. A loud thump could be heard before the door opened and a short woman with red hair walked in.

"Come on, then," She said, and the Doctor stared, while Aliya just blinked and gaped as the woman lifted her head so that they could see her face.

"_Ardi?!_" They asked in unison, disbelieving.

Her eyes sparkled as she grinned at them, "Fancy a prison break?"

The Doctor jumped to his feet and laughed with glee. "Oh, I knew you were good, but you are _brilliant_. Totally brilliant. If you ever want to travel the universe, let me know."

Ardi gave him an uncomprehending look at that, and shook her head. "We don't have time to chat. We've got about five minutes before the guards could start to wake up." They followed her out into the corridor and walked over the unconscious bodies of the aforementioned guards.

"What did you do to them?"

"Drugged food. Far too easy, actually. That's the thing - Aquian children are tiny enough to get anywhere."

"Children?"

"Everyone does what they can when times call for it."

"But you've got hair," Aliya said suddenly, eyeing it, "Red hair, with blue skin, interesting combination."

"It's a wig we managed to get hold of. Even with the guard cap on, baldness is a bit of a giveaway that I'm not human, not even including the blue skin. I just had to keep my head down."

"And the height? You're taller."

"Very high heels underneath." At Ardi's words, he saw Aliya's eyes flick incredulously down to Ardi's feet, no doubt wondering how someone could walk in shoes like the ones she described.

"Prison break though, bit risky," The Doctor commented, "Didn't think you valued us that much."

"You're clever, very clever, and you're on our side," Ardi said, "That's enough to make you necessary. In three and a half hours, the situation has deteriorated at an incredible rate."

"More earthquakes, worse every time."

Ardi grimaced as they came to a fire exit door and slipped out. "That's only the half of it."

"What else has happened?" Aliya asked.

"We tried to take control of the pods to destroy them, but we only got through a couple before they beat us back. We're virtually in a civil war, though luckily there are almost no weapons in the city so there have been very few people actually harmed so far. Unfortunately, those who did have weapons were the human security guards, so we've been at the disadvantage a little."

"It would all make sense without the earthquakes," Aliya speculated, frowning as the three of them walked through the shadowy side streets in the direction of the Aquian side of the city. "I mean, humans disrespecting another culture for the sake of greed, that's unfortunately one of the most understandable situations to exist. But the removal of the gold being dangerous? It works as a story to ward off thieves, but then there's the earthquakes. How could they be linked?"

The Doctor nodded, agreeing with her points completely. "If only we could have examined the Trove more when we were there."

"Sorry, but there's no chance of getting back there, the humans are in control over the pods. The best we were able to do was get a hold of a few pieces of gold," Ardi told him.

He considered that. "You know, it might not be a stupid idea to try and analyse the gold. After all, that's what this is all about."

"Considering that we're clueless, nothing is a stupid idea right now," Aliya pointed out.

"You really think that there could be something unusual about it?" Ardi asked.

The Doctor shrugged. It wasn't as if he knew what he was doing. He never did. "It's the only potential lead we have on the earthquakes. The politics don't matter if the city is in danger."

"Okay, don't take this the wrong way, Ardi, but you're a street performer," Aliya said slowly, frowning, "Why is it that all of a sudden you're highly informed and involved in all of this?"

"Because without the information I gave them, they wouldn't know anything," Ardi said, grinning widely, "And it turns out I've got a knack for all this, so suddenly I'm rather important. I suppose I have you two to thank for that."

* * *

An hour later, they were in the lab of an Aquian chemist, who was apparently rather esteemed for being just that. The man, called Quinto, was a genius, and the Doctor found his easy laughter and youthful eyes in a less youthful face to be ideal for the sort of company he wanted.

The two of them were in the middle of analysing small specks of the gold, while Ardi, Aliya and several other Aquians sat off to the side and waited.

"So, are you his assistant, or his girlfriend?" He heard Ardi ask Aliya.

"Neither!" The blonde retorted, sounding almost offended. "I'm definitely not his bloody girlfriend."

"Then what are you?"

"Well, I suppose I _do_ assist him, but I'm not his assistant. I'm his companion. We travel together."

"I see. And naturally, you're not his assistant, or you'd be helping him right now."

"I help when I can," Aliya said, still not sounding happy, "But this isn't one of those times. I'm useless at this sort of stuff."

"Being good at chemistry is hardly a prerequisite to being my companion," The Doctor said loud enough for her to hear.

"I know. It's rather obvious, looking at some of your previous ones."

A reply had only half formed in his mind when the work he was doing suddenly took precedent again as he noticed something rather incredible indeed.

"Aha!" He exclaimed. "There it is. Faint, but there. Life signs."

Aliya was up and at his side in an instant. "Are you trying to tell me that the gold is alive?"

"Possibly. But it depends on your definition of alive. As far as I can tell, it's a bit like moss. Not sentient. And dead, or at least this little bit is."

Her expression was almost comical, it was so baffled. "Religious sites containing moss-like gold, which causes earthquakes when removed? This is ridiculous."

"Ridiculous is a strong word. I've been in fair more ridiculous situations than this, this is just odd and a bit confusing, not ridiculous. But it'll make sense eventually," He told her.

"Eventually being before or after the earthquakes cause enough damage in the city that people start getting hurt?" She retorted, making him frown.

But before he could answer, the most powerful earthquake yet by far shook them, and they all fought to remain standing, only to fail. From the floor, they could hear yells outside, then several screams.

"They can't be screaming over the earthquake," Aliya murmured from a few feet away. The Doctor stood, rubbing his head before offering her a hand up. New screams penetrated the walls of the lab. They exchanged a look before both running out the door of the lab and onto the street. A dozen Aquians were nearby, most of them with their heads tilted up to look far above them.

"What are you lot all-" The Doctor trailed off as he too brought his eyes upward. "Oh."

"Oh shit," Aliya breathed, doing the same.

A colossal dark shadow was being cast over the dome. It was slowly moving around the outside of the dome to their left, and looked to be at least the length and width of a football field. Edges of the shadow hinted at limbs coming off the main shape, which then hinted at it being some form of creature.

"What the hell is that and where did it come from?" His friend asked. Her eyes were wide, and although fear and shock were certainly dominant in them, he couldn't help but notice the smallest spark of awe as well. The shadow began to move upward, as if to swim over the dome and leave them all behind.

"No idea," He said, unable to keep a giddy grin off of his face, "But I love new things."

"Yeah, new things, great," She said mildly, her voice almost squeaking, "Unless the new thing decides that it doesn't like us."

About two seconds later, a thunderous crash from above rang her words home. More yelling and screaming could be heard in the distance. A cracking noise followed, and they watched in horror as a thin but definite line travelled down the glass from the top of the dome. It stopped before it got halfway down, but that was hardly reassuring.

"Did it just-"

"Hit the top of the dome?" The Doctor asked. He gulped. "I think so."

"By the Other," Aliya swore, "This got just a hundred times worse."

From behind them, Ardi's voice made them spin around, only to see that she was speaking into a mobile communicator.

"What just happened?" She asked frantically.

_"I think - I think it's some kind of creature,"_ The person on the other end replied, loud enough for the others to hear. "_It collided with the top of the dome. There's only the one crack so far, but it's big. Hold on, Ardi, I've got another unit trying to make contact."_

They waited patiently around Ardi until the voice returned.

_"That was Trelin from maintenance. They've got some bad damage up there, and if they can't fix the air filter then we're going to have problems. As in, not being able to breathe sort of problems."_

"Who's available to help?"

_"Ardi, practically no one can get anything done because everyone's still against each other. And Trelin's the only Aquian qualified."_

"Are you trying to tell me that none of the humans up there are concerned about also suffocating to death?"

_"Their superiors have ordered all non essential humans to take to the streets to help contain our lot. Trelin was the only one on staff when it happened - usually it just needs a supervisor, it's an automated system."_

"But now it's essential!" Ardi said, looking both confused and outraged.

_"They can't get up, the stairway is damaged and none of them want to risk it."_

"Oh for sanity's sake," Aliya said, "I'll come and help. I don't care about some stupid stairway, I'm not about to let myself and tens of thousands of others die because of lack of help. Where is maintenance?"

"The top of the dome," Ardi said, grimacing, "That's why they're damaged."

Aliya sighed, but her eyes conveyed slight dismay. "Excellent," She murmured.

_"Excuse me, who is that? Who's going to help Trelin?"_

"The female offworlder," Ardi told him, "I'll send her with a guide to get her to the base of the stairs up to maintenance." She looked up at Aliya. "From there, you're on your own."

"What's wrong with the stairs, exactly?" The blonde asked her.

_"They've partially collapsed. It will be a pain of a climb, and there's a chance of collapse at any point."_

"Aliya, this is not a good idea," The Doctor said. As if he was going to let her climb through a dodgy staircase up to the most damaged part of the city.

She just set her lips in a firm line, apparently having expected his protest. "Then what's your alternative? Someone has to go and help."

He hated it when she was right. "Fine. But the moment you've done what you can, you get back down here, unless you don't think the stairs are worth risking."

Thankfully, she nodded at that. "You'll be busy enough down here. You've got the tricky job, you've got to work out why this is all happening. I'm just fixing machines." She grinned, clearly trying to make them both feel less worried.

"Doctor, I can get you a whole piece of gold to examine, if you wish," One of the Aquians said, and he turned around and clapped his hands together.

"Good, sounds like a plan...though why do you call it a whole piece? Isn't it raw gold?"

"Yes, but most of it is in round shapes, sir. Like spheres, almost."

_Now that_ is_ interesting,_ the Doctor thought, and followed the man inside.

* * *

Aliya shifted from foot to foot while Ardi found a guide to take her to the base of the maintenance stairwell. Five minutes later, a Aquian child who came up to her hip was at her side. He beamed at her.

"This is my guide?" The Time Lady asked Ardi incredulously, but the girl shrugged.

"He's as capable as anyone else," She said.

With a second to think about it, Aliya accepted that it was probably true. She popped her head back into the lab building, where the Doctor and his new Aquian friend were back at work.

"Doctor, I'm going now, but I'll see you soon, okay?" She told him, and he briefly turned away from his gold sample to nod at her.

"Alright! Be careful, River!" He called distractedly. She froze in the doorway as he went back to his work without another word, not even noticing his slip up.

"Aliya," She whispered, trying not to be disheartened. It was difficult. She took a deep breath and forced herself to let it go before she turned and went back to where her tiny guide was waiting.

"Ready to go, miss?" He chirped. She nodded, and within a minute found that she couldn't not be cheerful in his presence. Her current regeneration was too maternal, being around children of any kind always lifted her spirits. The two of them walked through the streets until they came to an elevator that would take them to higher levels of the city. Once they reached the top of that, they came out onto a small deck that overlooked the entire civilisation, making her stop and take it in with wonder.

"It's beautiful," She said, and the boy just stared.

"It's big." He sounded almost frightened. "Never been here before. Knew where it was, but this is for adults. Not kids, and not Baldies."

"Baldies?"

"That's what humans call us, sometimes. We wouldn't mind if they didn't do it to be mean, but they do."

Aliya frowned. "That's horrid!"

"That's just humans."

"Well…" She wrestled for something to say. "Next time someone calls you that, just call them an ape. They're descended from monkeys, you know."

The boy beamed. "That's a good idea, Miss!" He hugged her legs and middle tightly, and she smiled. "I should probably go back now."

"Yeah, you should. You go and keep safe." She knelt so that she was level with him, and kissed the top of his shiny blue head, making him giggle. "Thank you. I don't even know your name."

"It's Dee, Miss."

"Well, Dee, thank you very much for helping me," She told him, looking him right in the eye. "Now go get somewhere safe, there's a lot going on."

"Can't, Miss," He said, shaking his head, his large eyes wide, "Too much to do. I can help."

"Then…then still try and stay safe, alright?"

"I will, Miss. Goodbye!" He got into the elevator and waved to her until the door slid shut and blocked him from her view. After hoping with all her might that nothing bad would happen to him, Aliya went to the stairwell and looked up. Sure enough, the passage was twisted and damaged. Getting up would be a lot of crawling, wriggling and climbing, but it looked achievable.

Not impossible, or even unlikely, just a bit of a pain, assuming that it didn't collapse and crush her.

She decided not to dwell on that too much, and instead stepped into the space and began to slowly climb up. It was a hell of a job, and there were a few times where she was sure that she was stuck, only to eventually get through.

After twenty minutes, she saw an opening which looked to be the end.

"Hello?" She called, and a few seconds later, a blue, silver-finned head appeared in the gap.

"Hello," He said, sounding surprised, "Are you that offworlder they said was coming to help?"

"That would be me," She said with a nod and a smile, "Help me up?" There was a significant gap between the two of them. When he nodded, she stretched out her arms as far as she could, and he leant down and managed to grab them. With her pushing her legs against the debris for an extra boost and him pulling her up, she was on the platform in half a minute.

Trelin, because that was the only person he could be, leaned against the wall and took a few deep breaths before holding out his hand to her. "Trelin. What can I call you?"

"I'm Aliya," She said cheerily as she shook it, before taking a few moments to take in their surroundings. Several machines were smoking, and there was a control panel that looked battered. Even more instruments in the room she didn't recognise at all. None of it was in good shape.

"So, what do you think?" Trelin asked, scratching the back of his bald head almost sheepishly.

She just shook her head and shrugged, but let herself smile wryly. "I think we have a lot of work to do."

* * *

The Doctor sat on his stool, doing his best not to pace around the room. They were waiting for the test results of their analysis of the whole piece of gold. But in the meantime, there wasn't much to do and it was making him incredibly restless. In any circumstance, restlessness for him was common and to be dreaded.

But to make it worse, it also gave him far too much time in these circumstances to conjure up various scenarios of all the bad things that could befall his companion before she was back with him.

And to make it worse, none of them were particularly far fetched…except the one involving a Dalek spontaneously arriving at the top of the Dome via emergency temporal shift. He could admit that it wasn't particularly likely.

Finally, the Doctor got up and instead wandered outside in hopes of spying the creature again and getting a better look. Problem was that because there wasn't any light outside of the dome, the creature was mostly a giant shadow. The only way he was going to get a better look was if the creature came close enough to be illuminated by the city's lights - and that would most likely be too close.

"You know, they tried to keep mining," Quinto said from a few feet away from him. The Doctor had been so lost in his own thoughts that he hadn't noticed the Aquian scientist follow him out. "Apparently it was fine at first, but then they lost contact and the pods that had gone out didn't come back. Do you think that this creature got them?"

"I think that it's very likely," The Doctor said, nodding. "But the real question is why."

Another Aquian, Quinto's assistant, ran up to them from inside. "The results are back, Quinto," The young female said, with wide eyes, "I took a glance and you're not going to believe it."

The two males followed her inside, and she grabbed the printed out written results, complete with graphs. Both of them scanned it, and almost simultaneously turned to stare at each other.

"Not moss," The Doctor breathed, "Not even a little bit like moss. About as far from moss as you can get."

"It's alive. Not like a plant, like a living being," Quinto said. "The whole pieces of gold are all in the fixed shapes. Do you think they're...eggs?"

"Eggs...or children." The Time Lord gulped. "How much do you wanna bet big shadow creature out there is Mum?"

"But...it's still incredibly close to being gold...they're creatures made of living gold," The assistant said, shaking her head, "Is that even possible?"

"Big universe, full of impossible things," The Doctor told her, "I've seen a lot of things that make less sense than this. But it makes it add up. The earthquakes were probably the mother trying to get out after they started taking her kids."

Quinto nodded. "So do you think that those ancestors met with this creature? Could it have lived that long?"

"Gold can last for centuries and centuries, so most likely," The other man agreed, "They spun the legend to protect the creature, make it so that no one bothered her children or her."

"Sarn," Quinto addressed his assistant. "Call Ardi, make sure she gets the word out that the gold is sentient. It has to be treated carefully. Even the humans need to be told, and they can come here if they need proof, or do their own tests."

Sarn nodded and swiftly grabbed a communicator from the bench before leaving the room to talk into it.

"You realise that if we give the gold back, the creature will probably leave the city alone?" The Doctor asked Quinto, who nodded.

"I agree, a creature that lives in the same cavern for centuries wouldn't be prone to aggression unless provoked."

"Do you think the humans will give the gold back?"

The Aquian sighed and gave a tiny, helpless shrug. "They might not have a choice. We're probably going to have to try and convince them." That was when Sarn burst back into the room, looking even paler than usual. She approached the Doctor, holding the communicator out to him.

"Doctor, sir-" She looked at him with visible panic. "It's maintenance. They're hit, again. It's...it's not good. I got them to put you through, but-"

He snatched the communicator from her and strode several paces away. In the space of a second, his hearts had started working double speed. "Aliya, are you there?" He asked urgently.

_"I'm here,"_ She answered, her voice sounding strained. _"Did you find anything?"_

"Yes, we did, but that's not important right now. Are you okay?"

_"Right now? Yeah, both of us are fine. But the creature hit us again. The glass is shattered. It's held so far, but-"_ Her voice faltered. _"I think we've got about two minutes."_ The Doctor slammed his hand on the nearest counter, furious with himself that he had let her go to the most vulnerable place in the city. _"But since we would never have made it down the stairs in time, we shut them off. The door's solid, and now we're completely sealed off. The city will be fine."_

"I can't get to the TARDIS in time, it's on the other side of the city," He told her, frantic. "I don't...I can't…"

_"I know. It's okay. I'll do my best to try and swim up,"_ She sounded so optimistic that he knew she was faking it for his benefit. The fact that there was too much of a distance to cover before her oxygen ran out was glaringly obvious, not even taking into account the fact that she couldn't really swim.

"Good, good," He murmured, rubbing his face, mind fruitlessly racing to come up with a plan.

Another voice from the other end of the line could be heard, a voice that had to belong to the Aquian she had been sent to help.

_"But...the pressure down here, we won't have a chance to swim,"_ He said, rather grimly.

_"Not true. I'm not human, my species can survive large amounts of pressure. It won't kill me, it'll just hurt like hell,"_ Aliya informed him, "_And your sub-branch of the Aquian species was apparently once able to survive underwater, that's how you have your legend about the Trove of Traquan. So there's a chance that you'll be fine, you can just make your way to the surface."_

_"But if that's true, then I can help you get there, pull you up."_

"Do you think you could?" The Doctor asked sharply.

_"I'll have to try! Assuming the stories are true."_

There was a sudden silence.

"What?" He couldn't keep the urgency from his voice, but he had no reason to.

_"It's about to shatter,"_ came Aliya's quiet reply. _"...I'm sorry."_

"No," He said, helplessly. Then the unmistakeable crash of the glass and water could be heard, as well as several thuds. Then a scream of shock and grief.

_"Trelin! Doctor, the glass, he's just-"_

With another distorted wave of sound, the communicator went dead.

The Doctor nearly threw it across the room but instead managed to reign in enough self-control to just place it on the nearest surface. After a few seconds of controlled, deep breathing, he pointed at Quinto.

"You get Ardi, you get everyone. You tell them that every speck of gold must be returned, especially the whole pieces. Release them out into the ocean, or else that creature is going to keep attacking and all of you are as good as dead. People have already died, do not let anyone else join them," He said firmly, with the authority that always made people listen. It was the authority of the Oncoming Storm. "I'm going to get my friend. I don't expect you'll see me again." With that, he ran outside.

He commandeered the first vehicle he could, and drive it through town towards where he had parked the TARDIS, not caring about any speed limits, though being sure not to hit anyone. Finally the blue box came into his line of sight and he leapt from the car before sprinting towards it and clicking his fingers so that he could dash inside. He was at the console in seconds, his hands moving like lightning to close the doors, get the atom accelerator going, pump up the helmic regulator, and finally...release the handbrake.

Materialising underwater was tricky, doing so while trying to keep the destination near to where Aliya would have been swept out was even trickier. In the end, he had no choice but to get the TARDIS to extend her oxygen barrier and shield so that he could open the doors and physically look outside, using the light from the console room to try and spot her amongst the dark, murky water.

Just when he had almost given up hope, he spotted the shape he was looking for. It was limp, small, and sinking. He ran back to the console and swerved the ship so that it scooped her up, depositing her and a lot of the water around her into his console room. He immediately shut the doors and made a quick jump to the nearest spot on the surface. He picked Aliya's body up and exited the TARDIS, letting the water flood out behind them.

They were on a rocky bank right next to the water's edge, looking out over the vast ocean. But he paid no attention to the view. Instead, he lay down his friend and began looking her over.

It wasn't good.

She was incredibly cold, her skin pale but also an odd purple. _Bruises, _he realised, from the water pressure that close to the bottom of the ocean. They covered almost all of her skin, but they had to be ignored for the moment. Because worst of all, she wasn't breathing.

"Aliya," He said, brushing her hair back so that it was out of her face, "Aliya, come on, it's just water, you're not going to be beaten by some hydrogen and oxygen molecules, you're better than that!"

Her hair and clothes were plastered to her skin. He removed her jacket so that it couldn't get in his way, and started compressions on her chest. Quickly and with strength he didn't often use, he did thirty on each heart before tilting her head to clear her airway and dipping his own down to breathe two breaths of air into her mouth. Then he went back to the compressions. Again, thirty on one heart, then thirty on the other, then two breaths.

Still nothing. He went back to compressions.

"Don't you _dare_ die on me, Aliyanadevoralundar, I forbid you to die on me!" He shouted. He finished the thirty compressions on her left heart and was about to move to her right when her body jerked.

Water spurted from her mouth and she spluttered, her chest heaving and her head twisting frantically. Utter nonsense spilled from her lips, most of which sounded as though it could have been very rapid and incoherent Gallifreyan.

"Shhh," He said quietly, sliding an arm under her back so that he could lift her onto his lap and hold her shivering form to his chest as if she were a child, "It's okay. You're safe."

"It was so dark," She croaked, "Like the mountain, and I got scared, and anything I thought I knew about swimming just-"

He just shook his head and bent to kiss her forehead briefly. "I've got you. We're on the surface, we're safe. The TARDIS is just there, we can fly away, right now."

Her eyes flicked to him and she frowned marginally. "But, the city, the creature-"

"Taken care of," He assured her, "I worked it out, just like I said I would. They should all be fine."

"Trelin…"

"Will be the only one to die, if they do as I told them to."

She unabashedly snuggled against him, still shaking in her sodden white tank top and jeans. He didn't complain - after such a close call, having her in his arms was just as reassuring for him as it was for her. When she made a small noise of pain, she pulled away enough to frown again.

"Why does it feel like I've been run over by a train?"

"The water pressure, remember?" He reminded her. "You think it hurts now, wait until the numbness from the cold fades. You've got some nasty bruises. I won't lie, it's not going to be pleasant."

"Where?"

"Everywhere."

"Oh, brilliant."

He tried to wrap his jacket around her as best he could without actually removing it.

"All those times I mentioned it, I was never serious," Aliya whispered, "I never thought that the dome would actually break."

His hand smoothed back her wet strands of hair, slicking it back and out of the way. "Neither did I. But I kept my promise. I saved you from drowning."

"I should hope so," She said with a tiny bit of her usual attitude, before leaning against him again. Then, quietly, he heard her say, "Thank you."

He decided that there was no need to move straight away. After all, she could use all the body heat from him that she could get, but if he moved her, that would involve having to carry her over the threshold or something ridiculous like that.

He pressed a light kiss to the crown of her head, just incredibly relieved to have been able to revive her. She made a funny, contented hum and held onto his shirt just a little bit tighter.

No, they could just stay, like this, just a little while longer.

* * *

**Sorry for the delay in updating! I ended up being rather busy over New Year's, we had to move house. Which in itself is a nightmare, but add the fact that we had to do a whole bunch of cleaning and painting as well, and it was a bloody nightmare. But all done now, thankfully! I have a goal of trying to write 1000 words a day, or 500 at the very least, and I have been doing well so far. While it might not necessarily be this story, it will be something and that's the main thing. :) **

**Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far! You're all magnificent people. **

**I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, mainly because of all the platonish Daliya fluff which is so thoroughly enjoyable. Note the use of the word platonish as opposed to platonic. To quote How I Met Your Mother, 'people are only platonic when there is absolutely no chance of them hooking up in the next 20 minutes, not even if lives are at stake'. I think it's safe to say that if lives were at stake...well. ;)**

**But in other news, Peter Capaldi! I'm already very excited, he looks fantastic! **

**Now, next chapter we will see them finally inform Jenny of their fixed situation. Also, the Doctor will meet the new Torchwood team. So, expect:**

**Jack - flirting**

**John Hart - surprise, then flirting**

**Gwen - "hello again Gwen how do you like my face?"**

**Rex - "American, nice!"**

**Esther - "wtf why do you look like Aliya's first body I hit that once this is super awkward" - "what?"**

**Marion - "hello there!" - "seriously, you're the one they're all making a fuss about?"**

**I can say that I'm looking forward to it more than I should. :P**

**Love you all and see you soon,**

**-MayFairy :) **

**p.s. my Kate Stewart/The Rani fanfic is up for anyone who might be interested. Understandably, it hasn't gotten a heck of a lot of attention, so any is appreciated. :P**


End file.
